So we’re a little proud: two Hatchathon ’15 alums, Try Pie and Mowtown, were named recipients of Duke Leadership’s 2016 Traditioned Innovation Grants! The Traditioned Innovation Awards, which Duke Leadership Education names annually, recognizes established or emerging institutions that exemplify dynamic and imaginative leadership that hold “the past and future in tension rather than opposition,” and enable leaders to “act creatively in the face of social and financial challenges while remaining faithful to the institution’s mission and convictions.”

Each ministry received a grant of $10,000, and have been featured in Faith and Leadership and the Princeton Lectures on Youth, Church and Culture. (You can see the Faith and Leadership article for Try Pie here, and for Mowtown here.)

Try Pie in Waterloo, Iowa, led by Megan Tensen, operates as a new economic model for community development that cultivates a foundation of financial competency, personal responsibility, community engagement and stewardship of the delicious abundance of God’s creation—by giving a diverse group of teen girls meaningful work as they make and sell pies. Students earn money, acquire job and life skills, work on vocational discernment and leadership formation, and practice giving to their community while saving for their futures.

Mowtown Teen Lawn Care and Youth Ministry Innovators in Vancouver, Washington is a for-profit company in partnership with Columbia Presbyterian Church, led by Matt Overton (who is also the associate pastor at Columbia, and the owner of Mowtown). Matt found that significant conversations about life, faith and God emerged naturally when teens and adults work alongside each other doing yard work—and were less “cheesy” than in the artificial environment of a youth group meeting—and allowed teens to gain job and life skills, as well as mentoring from adults. It also enabled the ministry to address a far more diverse group of students than the youth group model alone had been able to do.

We are tickled pink for hatchletes Megan and Matt—and especially the young people and churches who made Try Pie and Mowtown possible.

Who knows? Maybe your idea is next! If you’ve got questions, give us a call. Register for the 2017 Princeton Hatchathon here.

Hungry for more? Sign up for our newsletter and stay up to date on our latest blogs and Ministry Incubators news! Or, are you ready to take action? Think about attending a Hatchathon where you can start planning your own venture! Check out the next one happening March 29-31 at Princeton Theological Seminary.