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Golubock Finalists Named

Oct 17, 2022 | 10:05 AM
Golubock Finalists Named

From left: Rocco Pompa with The Magic Bean Café, Andy Eliason and Brett Butler with SafeTech Fire Protection, Lauren Melka With Al’s Gym, Jim Minard with Team Minard Productions. Photo courtesy Bradford Area Alliance.



(The following is the text of a press release by the Bradford Area Alliance.)

Four top finalists in the Harvey L. Golubock Business Competition will be competing on Thursday, October 20th for a total of $25,000 in prize money. The Bradford Area Alliance is championing the 3rd annual business competition to seed and support the formation of new startups and new ventures of existing businesses. This competition is part of an overall strategy by the Bradford Area Alliance in economic gardening, an entrepreneurial approach to economic development that seeks to grow the local economy from within.

Finalists in the competition include:

  • Rocco Pompa with The Magic Bean Café, which opened 2021, is expanding the area’s first board game and tabletop gaming cafe into more of a full-service restaurant.
  • Brett and Nicole Butler and Andy and Chelsea Eliason are acquiring SafeTech Fire Protection, a fire protection service company offering sale, service, and testing of fire extinguishers and commercial kitchen suppression systems.
  • Allen Black and Lauren Melka are re-locating and opening Al’s Gym, a fully equipped athletic training facility with a wide variety of state-of-the-art fitness equipment and training by local personal trainers.
  • Jim Minard with Team Minard Productions, an existing commercial screen printing and embroidery shop, is increasing production through the purchase of an automatic screen-printing press.

“The response to this competition demonstrates that a strong spirit of entrepreneurism exists in our community.  It is exciting to see such a ground swell response in our community as we had a 35% increase in applicants this year. The competition to select the finalists was fierce.  The finalist judges will have a tough job a next Thursday’s Pitch Event as well.”, says Carolyn Boser Newhouse, Bradford Area Alliance Executive Director.

This competition, the “Spark to Fuel Your Business”, is possible because of support by the Blaisdell Foundation, Halloran Philanthropies, Northwest Bank, the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford and the McKean County Community Foundation. A special “Harvey L. Golubock Business Competition” fund exists through the McKean County Community Foundation to fund this annual competition.

The Pitch Event competition will be held LIVE this year on Thursday, October 20th at 6:00pm at Pitt-Bradford’s Bromeley Family Theater located in Blaisdell Hall.  The public is invited to attend this free event.