Lewisville Soup is a new community event created by art teacher Nicole Franczvai. The main idea of Lewisville Soup is to bring people together to share their ideas on how to create a better environment throughout the community. Though it is not an original idea, Franczvai was inspired by another organization called Detroit SOUP.

The first Lewisville Soup meeting was held on Friday, April 12 at the Hedrick House. Four people or groups pitch ideas to benefit the City of Lewisville, and at the end, attendees vote on whom they want to support. After the voting, everyone eats a potluck dinner. The cost to attend is $10 and this money goes to the winning group to support its cause.

“It’s not about the money, it is not a popularity contest, it’s about people getting up and talking [about] their ideas and people honestly seeking interest [in those] ideas,” Franczvai said. “Really, [it’s] about bringing together a community of people to create this energy of ideas and people who want [to] create change.”

Math teacher Shari Mayes attended the first meeting. She believes the dinner went well and had a friendly environment since it involved the community.

“I wasn’t a presenter but just being part of it and knowing I was helping someone else get something going as a project or something that would be a benefit to others in our communities [was a] big plus for me,” Mayes said.

One of the groups was The Short Point News, a news website started by an INCubator group. Senior Jaqueline Hernandez believes the Lewisville Soup opportunity teaches her how to present in front of other people.

“You get to learn about stuff people are doing in the community – [ideas] I didn’t even know somebody [was] doing in our city,” Hernandez said.

The winner of the first event was the Veterans Produce Foundation, which received $540. The foundation is for local homeless veterans and also serves as a training ground for veterans to learn about aquaponics.

“I think it’d be cool to support anything that helps anybody else [because] you are helping someone accomplish something, and just by listening to them and their idea helps,” Franczvai said. “What I really love is the veteran’s group; their help is educating somebody to do something. I think that’s beautiful.”

The next Lewisville Soup dinner will be held on Friday, June 21 at the Hedrick House at 6 p.m. Applications to present are due on May 31 and the four chosen people or groups will be announced June 7.

“[The groups] were all with the intention of helping others,” Mayes said. “I think it was a really good way for community [members] to collaborate and help each other. You can’t help every person all the time in every group, but as a community, we can do something, small or large.”