FARMINGTON -- UpStart Thrift Store in Farmington has awarded its first round of grants to small businesses in Washington County, according to Caleb Talley, executive director of the Startup Junkie Foundation.
Two Farmington businesses, Grayscale Barbershop and Massage WoRx, and Natural Threads of Fayetteville each received a $500 grant.
The store awarded a "marquee" grant of $5,000 to Orthodox Farmhouse Brewery in Elkins to help the small business that will be a brewery and tap room, Talley said.
UpStart is an all-volunteer organization that falls under the umbrella of Startup Junkie, a NWA nonprofit organization. The thrift store is located at 235 E. Main St.
The thrift store opened to the public on June 1, 2022, with the goal to help provide financial support to local small business owners. Proceeds from sales at the thrift store are used to help fund grants to benefit small businesses.
Initially, Talley said, the plan had been to hold a check-presenting event at the brewery in Elkins but it was taking a little longer for the business to be ready for that. So the decision was made to go ahead and distribute the grants and plan a celebration for the recipients at the brewery at a later date.
The organization opened up the process last fall for small businesses in Washington County to apply for a grant of up to $5,000. Applicants had to be physically located in Washington County to be considered for a grant and in business for five years or less.
STORE RECEIVES QUALITY APPLICATIONS
Phyl Amerine, one of the cofounders of UpStart, said the thrift store leadership team was excited about the quality of businesses that applied for grants and about the impact the grants will have on the community.
"We want the money to go where we think it will benefit the community in the best way possible," Amerine said.
She said they learned a few things the first go around and tweaked the applications somewhat for the second round of grants.
"For one, we tightened up the questions on the application. We realized some of the questions were vague," she said.
The store received applications from all over the place, not just Washington County businesses, so applicants are required to provide a full address on their forms.
Another change, she said, is that initially the thrift store planned to give away a $5,000 grant every quarter but now the plan is to give out smaller grants every quarter to reach more businesses.
"The amount we give out is also based on the sales of the store. The goal is up to $5,000 but that depends on the sales of the store," Amerine said.
The process for selecting grant recipients starts with filtering through the applications to narrow them down for consideration. The store volunteers are the ones who rank the top applications to help determine what businesses will receive a grant and the amount of the grant.
For the first round, Amerine said UpStart received about 10 really good applications and these were narrowed to five for the volunteers to consider. Applicants are welcome to apply again if they did not receive a grant, she said.
MORE ABOUT THE RECIPIENTS
Amy Lane of Farmington, who owns Grayscale Barbershop, last week said she was thankful and appreciative to receive a $500 grant. Grayscale Barbershop recently moved to a new location in Farmington at 95 Southwinds Road, Suite 1.
She is using the grant to purchase special equipment to help serve clients with sensory needs. For some people, Lane said, getting a haircut is a "very overloading sensory experience for them."
Natural Threads, owned by Jonathan Holder of Fayetteville, is an e-commerce small business that provides custom-crafted t-shirts and other clothing through its website and also is a wholesale business for retail brick and mortar stores.
Holder said he used the grant to help purchase a plane ticket to Long Beach, Calif., to research better products and better equipment for his business. Customers can reach the business through its website, naturalthreads.com.
Orthodox Farmhouse Brewery is owned by Jesse and Ashlyn Gagnon and located at 15660 Ball Road in Elkins. The brewery has had a soft opening and will open full-time in the next few weeks, said Ashlyn. It is a farmhouse taproom-driven brewery in rural Washington County.
Ashlyn said they used the $5,000 grant to purchase raw materials to make their product. She said Orthodox Farmhouse is located on a 2 1/2-acre site near Goshen.
Massage WoRx, owned by Jennifer Wing, is located at 12200 W. Highway 62. According to Wing's application, she is using her $500 grant to purchase an ADA-compliant hydraulic massage table and for a continuing education course.