Local nonprofit DreamLarge will host its inaugural "DreamLarge Weekend" this October at Ringling College of Art and Design. The weekend-long experience proposes to "empower the next generation to ideate and prototype solutions to meaningful challenges Sarasota’s nonprofit community is facing." Students ages in grades 8-11 and nonprofits are invited to sign up; over the weekend, teams of students and mentors will have spent time analyzing and exploring a chosen issue through a creative lens, honed in to a single solution and prototyped into a plan that creates social impact. At the end of the weekend, students will pitch their ideas to a panel of judges comprised of local community leaders, including executives, business professionals, and philanthropic influencers.

This weekend was born from the Education Foundation of Sarasota County’s 2016 Hackathon initiative, which worked to establish coding skills and technology-based solutions in early-age youth over the course of a weekend. Acquired by DreamLarge at the start of 2019, it has evolved into an elevated push to reignite creativity and innovation in Sarasota County students.