WW Homestead Dairy to compete for statewide prize Thursday in Dream Big Grow Here contest

Last year, more than 225 small business owners from across Iowa uploaded their business dreams to www.DreamBigGrowHere.com in 10 regional $5,000 contests. More than 100,000 Iowans voted and posted support for their favorite small business online.
Ten regional contest winners will now appear before a panel of judges to pitch their dreams in person this Thursday, March 7 in Cedar Falls. One Iowa small business owner will be named the 2013 winner and will receive a cash award of $10,000 from the Iowa Bankers Association.
Among those 10 regional winners is WW Homestead Dairy of Waukon, which placed first among 17 businesses competing in the 2012 Northeast Iowa Business Network regional contest. In addition to WW Homestead Dairy, the other nine regional contest winners competing for Thursday's $10,000 statewide prize include the following:
Junior Mekinda - Ready To Go In America
Deri Fehr - Edu-Instruments
Devy Combs - The Chicken Sisters
Tom Mulholland - Mulholland Grocery
Michael Spurling - The Depot Family Restaurant
Dawn Pursell - Lizzy Mae’s Cupcakes and Sweets
Rachael Roewe - {made}, llc.
Nikole Benson - Tug’s Daycare and Preschool
Tyler Richard - Cryogen Design, LLC.

Thursday's 2013 Dream Big Grow Here pitch off is hosted in conjunction with EntreFest!, Iowa’s statewide two-day conference for small businesses, start-ups, people innovating inside big companies and economic developers. The Dream Big Grow Here Pitch-Off is free and open to the public, and is begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 7 at the The Hotel at Kirkwood Ballroom in Cedar Rapids, with Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds serving as the event emcee. For more information,  see www.entrefest.com.