“Dream Village enables child readers to experience the fulfillment that comes from making a difference,” said Bhatt. “We encourage children to make the world a better place in our story telling. For example, the first book tells how the children in a small village in Mozambique helped the village overcome its need for a dependable water source.”

The concept was created by a close-knit group of friends with a very specific skill set. Co-founders Alexander Cohen and Xavier Thomas, along with project members Hina Sheth, Pinki Shah, Soniya Sheth and Trupti Patel, each contributed to the project with their varied backgrounds.

“Our group includes a photographer, teacher, nurse and artist, and I received my MBA in social entrepreneurship,” added Bhatt. “We wanted to find a project that would allow us all to leverage our professional skills while doing something new, innovative and different.”

According to Bhatt, the $10,000 prize money will produce real products with real impact. The team will invest part of the money into funding and launching their next two books. They also plan to use some of the prize to print and sell their first 1,000 books, which Bhatt says will generate at least $5,000 in charitable donations. A portion of the prize will also go towards developing a beta version of the Dream Village website.

“Most of our ideas are under the umbrella of social entrepreneurship, and this is yet another example of the growing trend on ideablob,” said Ami Kassar, Advanta’s Chief Innovation Officer. “We like to see ideas where doing good is good business for people.” 

Ideablob.com is a vital online community where tens of thousands of small business owners and entrepreneurs actively share business ideas, feedback, advice and support. In addition, experts from various industries take part in weekly ideablob discussions, offering their direct advice to site users for honing and implementing their business concepts. 

Advanta, one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers (through Advanta Bank Corp.) in the small business market, awards a monthly prize to the best eligible idea, as determined by the votes from the ideablob community. In recent months, Advanta has awarded the monthly prize to a “mom-preneur” seeking to put organic food in school vending machines, to software developers, to nonprofit leaders and to several social entrepreneurs.

To view Bhatt’s idea and other ideas submitted by past ideablob winners, please visit www.ideablob.com.

There is no purchase necessary to enter the ideablob.com® Contest. Contest began on 9/24/07 at 12:00:00 am CT and ends on 3/31/09 at 11:59:59 pm CT. Open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. states and D.C. who are of the legal age of majority in their state of residence at the time of entry. Void where prohibited. Official Rules are available online at www.ideablob.com.  Sponsored by Advanta Bank Corp., PO Box 30715, Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0715.

About Advanta
Advanta is one of the nation’s largest credit card issuers (through Advanta Bank Corp.) in the small business market today. Advanta’s exclusive focus on this market, as well as its size, experience, and commitment to developing meaningful product offerings and a high level of service tailored to the needs of small businesses, differentiates the company from other issuers. Founded in 1951, Advanta has long been an innovator in developing and introducing many of the marketing techniques that are common in the financial services industry today. Learn more about Advanta at www.advanta.com.

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08/28

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