LINCOLN -- Lincoln School Board President Kendra Moore recently spoke to the local Kiwanis Club about the "Power of Small" and her efforts to make an impact on Lincoln through her business, family and as a member of the community.
Moore and her husband both graduated from Lincoln and their children attend Lincoln schools.
"We're invested in Lincoln like many of you are and proud to be a part of the 'power of small,'" Moore said. "I felt a conviction and wondered what we could do as a family and as a business owner to invest in the town that invested in me."
She noted many people have graduated from Lincoln and not returned home.
For her own children, Moore said, she wants them to be proud of where they grew up and wants their classmates to feel the same way.
Looking around the community, Moore said she and her husband decided that Lincoln Square is one place they could make an impact to benefit the city.
"We were really burdened with the square," she told the Kiwanis Club. "The square brings a town together and fosters community. How do we foster business and commerce and community unity?"
Moore said her vision is to make Lincoln Square a place of commerce and community, a place to shop and hang out.
To that end, she and her husband, through their company Redeemed Construction, have purchased four buildings on the square and she has been remodeling the first one at 113 W. Bean St.
Moore said her next step was to figure out how to instill a passion in Lincoln students toward their own community.
She reached out to the high school's entrepreneurial class with an idea to give students an opportunity to come up with ways the building on the Square could be used.
Moore and Tamra Duncan, Lincoln High School's business technology educator, developed a competition along the lines of the TV show Shark Tank. In the show, someone tries to sell a new product to a panel of investors with the hope one of the investors is willing to select the product and become involved.
Students in the entrepreneurial class divided into groups and were tasked with the challenge to create a plan for a business to go into a space with about 2,000 square feet.
"We decided this would be a fun way to form a partnership with the school," Moore said.
The business plan had to be creative but viable, had to show research, a financial plan, marketing and a target audience.
Five groups were given 10 minutes each to present their plan to the panel.
"We challenged them with questions," Moore said. "They responded really well. I was super impressed."
The ideas included three restaurants, a hangout area with an arcade and a boutique.
The panel selected Apple Clothing Company as the winner. The team presented a business that would be a boutique with Lincoln spirit clothing and fashion friendly clothing.
"They put a lot of thought and work into it," Moore said.
She pointed out the partnership with the class is a starting point to help students become invested in their community.
"The power of partnership is important to me," Moore said.
Moore said she believes aesthetics will be one of the most important factors in bringing back the Square as a community gathering place.
"It needs to be a place for people to enjoy," she said.
To make the square viable there will need to be enough businesses in the area for people to shop and hang around two to three hours, Moore added.
Jerry Leach, a member of the Kiwanis Club, pointed out Lincoln Square used to be the "hub of activity" for Lincoln.
"I think it can be a real jewel for the town," Leach said.
As part of her presentation, Moore showed a video put together by the school's EAST class. Students interviewed older citizens of Lincoln on what they remembered about the square.
In other video, Richard Jack Moore said kids would go to the movie house every Saturday to watch shows such as Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers. A movie cost 11 cents, he said. He remembered news reels when Ernie Pyle was the reporter giving the news of the day.
"That was our television back then," Richard Moore said.
General News on 02/06/2019