Roses to Morris Gelblum, a UNC graduate who has found a novel way to beat the recession, and to help other young adults do it, too.

Gelblum founded a company called Sweeps, based on a premise whose great charm is its simplicity.

He reasoned that a lot of people need various odd jobs done: moving furniture, proofreading papers, fixing computer glitches, help programming mobile devices, and so on.

A lot of other people – college students – have equally varied skills but are struggling to find work.

Why not put those two groups of people in touch with each other?

Sweeps, which Gelblum runs from a one-room office in the Franklin Business Center downtown, does just that.

Operating mostly online, the business pairs skilled students with people who need those skills. Gelblum screens the students who work through Sweeps to ensure that clients get motivated, dependable workers with the right skills for each job.

He has about 250 “Sweepers” from UNC, N.C. State and other universities. They aren’t building fortunes working for Sweeps, but they are making some cash to help make ends meet during the downturn, as well as building skills, meeting people and opening doors.

Gelblum actually established the basic framework for the company when he was in high school.

He refined it as a business student and UNC and earned an Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award at the Kenan-Flagler Business School for his business model.

He plans to expand Sweeps into Charlotte, Wilmington and the Triad in the coming year.

His is the kind of creative small business that it’s going to take to get more people earning an income and moving forward.

 

Roses, again, to Strowd Roses Foundation and the recipients of its latest round of grant recipients.

Strowd Roses is one of the great quiet heroes in this community. Every quarter the foundation distributes grants to local organizations that provide all manner of help, support and opportunity to local residents.

The good the foundation makes possible is impossible to truly measure, but it’s safe to say that many, many local residents have benefited from its generosity, often without even knowing it.

The recipients of the most recent round of grants are: Blankets for Children (Christ United Methodist Church), Carrboro Music Festival, Community Nutrition Partnership, EmPOWERment, Farmer Foodshare, Franklin Street Arts Collective, Greater Chapel Hill Association of Realtors’ “Fix-A-Home” program, The Hill Center, Planned Parenthood of Central NC, Prevent Blindness North Carolina, Student Coalition for Action in Literacy, and University United Methodist Preschool.

 

Roses to Chapel Hill for reinstating the Fourth of July fireworks and festivities, and to all the town staff, individuals and community businesses that pitched in to make it a resounding success.

Some 27,000 people filled one side of Kenan Stadium for the show, and attendees and business sponsors helped defray the cost of the event.

Individuals donated more than $8,000, and businesses chipped in a total of almost $12,000.