Downtown Dayton coffee shop wants your vote for national $15,000 grant

A downtown Dayton coffeehouse is seeking public support as it competes for a national award and $15,000 grant from the Virginia-based Service Corps of Retired Executives Association (SCORE), which sponsors the contest to help small businesses grow.

Third Perk Coffehouse & Wine Bar , which founder Juanita Darden-Jones opened in June 2015 at 46 W. Fifth St., is one of 49 Ohio businesses entered in the SCORE contest. Later this year, SCORE will name three businesses in the country out of a pool of 102 finalists as winners of a $15,000 grand prize.

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There is an online voting component to the contest, although the voting accounts for 15 percent of the criteria used to make the final decision on the winners. An evaluation process overseen by SCORE judges accounts for the other 85 percent of the selection criteria.

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Supporters of 3rd Perk can vote for the Dayton coffeehouse at www.championship.score.org.

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In addition to the grand prize that carries a $15,000 grant, two winners will be selected from each state, and those finalists for the grand prize will receive one year of mentoring and training from a SCORE member, valued at $4,500, and an expenses-paid trip to the SCORE Championship Training & Networking Celebration to be held in Reno, Nevada, in April 2018.

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3rd Perk added a liquor license last year and more recently launched Sunday brunch. It serves coffee, tea, wines and cocktails, along with a food menu of sandwiches, soups, salads and breakfast items, in space that previously housed The Ohio Coffee Co. and Seattle East coffee shops. For more information, check out the 3rd Perk Coffeehouse & Wine Bar Facebook page.

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