Last year we took a look at several Denton locals that took the leap of faith and put their plans in your hands with crowdfunding campaigns. Some were successful, some are still hard at work raisin additional funds through other means, and some didn't work out super well. Whichever it may be, we wanted to check back in and see where a few of them are now. Read on to see what your hard earned dollars and support helped with.

Splash Park

The Denton splash park efforts were seemingly everywhere this summer. One of the biggest fundraising efforts though was their Indiegogo campaign that started back in August. Of the $100,000 they were asking for, they've raised just over $6,000. However, through all of their efforts they've gotten the attention of the city and the parks department. Apparently the group behind the efforts has plans for more fundraisers in the spring as weather heats up and we are quickly reminded why a splash park would be a great addition to our city's landscape. They are also looking into neighborhood empowerment grants and a few other options for raising money. They are working on putting together a website, getting t-shirts printed and collecting more in-kind donations to help spur on the effort. It's good to know that there may still be a day in the not-so-far-off future we may just have a splash park to add to our cooling down strategies in the heat of the summer.

Soma Massage

Soma, a local massage company owned by neighborhood powerhouse Amber Briggle started an Indiegogo campaign to help expand her business. She had outgrown the space in her home and was ready to relocate to an office, hire a few more staff and watch her small business grow beyond the four walls it had previously been in. After her campaigning she was able to move that business into a new address, just a mile away from home. She has also doubled her staff, hiring four therapists, a part time office admin, and a web guy. Way to go local business!

Robert Gomez, Earth Underfoot

Talented local musician Robert Gomez asked for funds through Kickstarter to help record his fourth album. After a successful campaign, he recorded the album "Earth Underfoot" in September at Redwood Recording Studios in Denton, TX. A few days ago the album was mixed and hopefully will be released soon. We can't wait to hear it Rob. If you want to follow the progress of the project, updates are posted regularly on his artist page here.

Explorium Children's Science

Explorium Denton is a proposed interactive children's science museum for our city. A place where our kid's minds can be expanded and challenged with a range of interactive exhibits. The campaign is being led by Anyah Martinez, a local mom who is incredibly active in the Denton community. The campaign hasn't raised the funds it needs, but since it's through GoFundMe there is no end date. Anyah is working on making more promo videos in hopes to get the support of potential donors in the future. We're hoping to see more action on this project as we believe that an interactive science museum for our kids would be a pretty cool thing.

Rabbit Hole Brewing

Local brewers Rabbit Hole launched a campaign to help fund their beer brewing efforts. Never a city to turn down more alcohol, especially craft beer, we weren't surprised when they exceeded their fundraising goals. They recently launched their first two beers at Oak Street Draft House and East Side Social Clube. They Mike Modano's 561 Kolsch and the Rapture Brown Ale. They are now available at 20 different locations across the Metroplex and have more on the way.

Bookish Coffee

2013 was an exciting year for Bookish. After reaching their goals on Kickstarter, they were able to purchase a 12 kilo roaster, thats four times larger than the one they had been roasting on. Since then owner Clay Rozell has been learning and tweaking roast profiles with the new roaster, trying to extract the best flavor from the beans. Because of his new production capabilities he is better able to leverage his position with other companies to get his product onto more shelves. Right now he is working with Natural Grocers to get Bookish into more stores around the metroplex and he is working hard to get into a few other grocery stores in the area. Alongside being available in more stores, he is stocking beans in Big Mike's coffee rotation and into the Cyber Cafe in the UNT library. The growth of Bookish hasn't only been great for Bookish, it's also allowed them to give back to the Denton community a good bit. They were awarded the "Top Adopter Best Adopter in 2013" by the Denton Independent School District and Chamber of Commerce. They are also committed to supporting the Denton Area Younglife and their mission in Denton. According to Clay they success of the Kickstarter campaign really gave Bookish the boost it neeaded to become a more viable business and a bigger part of the community.

We’ve spent a lot of time covering Bookish Coffee here at We Denton Do It. Back in the day, we interviewed previous owner Brian Daskam about Bookish and their late-bicycle delivery service (RIP, awesome idea). A year or two later, we also we did a behind-the-scenes video with the then-new owner, Clay Rozell, about how their beans go from green to brown and eventually end up in your cup. Bookish was busy even then, and this was before their coffee was sold at The Cupboard, Natural Grocers, Denton Square Donuts, UNT, and all of the other lovely places in town you can purchase Bookish Coffee. Clay and his cohort, Wade Matheny, are in need of a new roaster and they’ve turned to you (via Kickstarter) to help. They're looking to purchase something that can handle larger roasting sizes to help their business accomodate for their recent growth (get that checked, Wade).

In a city where we see lots of local business fail each and every year, it’s nice to see one that’s having problems due to their success. At this time, Bookish has a little over a week left to receive the $13,500 in pledges (down from $30,000) that they need in order to be successful. This is normally the make-it-or-break-it point for most crowdfunding projects. The people who were excited to donate have already done so and the rest of the donations will either have to come from people who are holding out to donate or have just heard about the project. Maybe you or one of your friends is one of said people. So, if you haven’t already donated, do so before next Saturday. $50 gets you a Bookish Coffee mug, too! You can put it next to your Armadillo Ale Works beer glass.

Speaking of beer, while a lot of our local brewing talking time gets devoted to our pals at Armadillo Ale Works, just down the road there’s another couple of dudes hoping to get a brewery up off the ground. In the middle of Justin, TX (yes, that Justin, TX) Matt Morriss, Tom Anderson and Laron Cheek of Rabbit Hole Brewing are trying to convert an office space and parking lot into a tasting room and biergarten, respectively. They’re started with a goal of $12,000 and have already received over $8,000 of that goal with a little over a week left. While the space might not look like much, the crew has big plans and a strangely awesome (in a b-movie kind of way) video to accompany the project. Plus, it’ll give you more to do in Justin than just buying a pair of boots or getting lost.

And lastly, on the more serious side of things, Giovanna Salas of Crazy Dreamer Productions, is looking for $7,000 to get her documentary about wild horses into the saddle. The crew has already been hard at work filming their non-biased documentary about what place wild horses (or the legends, thereof) have in a modern society, but are looking for additional funding to help with location fees, equipment rentals and festival entry fees. Sounds like this thing is getting made even if you hate horses. While there was plenty of room for Salas to make a “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” joke, sadly, they did not. Take that into account before you decide whether or not to donate.