A personal fitness trainer and sneaker collector beat out 130 other small business owners and entrepreneurs to win the American Free Enterprise. Dream Big. campaign’s “I Am Free Enterprise” video contest. By a popular online vote, Carlos Sanchez, of Maplewood, New Jersey, took home the grand prize of $50,000. Runners-up Tracy Foster and Meredith Bragg won $30,000 and $20,000, respectively. Rounding out the top five were Jennifer Stewart and Celeste Carlucci and Julie Kardachi. An expert panel selected the five finalists from among the 25 most viewed videos. Watch the top five videos at www.FreeEnterprise.com/video.

Carlos Sanchez: “I Am Free Enterprise”

Small business owner and entrepreneur Carlos Sanchez grew up in the Sumner Houses in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn surrounded by drugs, gangs, and violence. “Free enterprise was my ticket out,” Sanchez says in his 3-minute video. “I started as a fitness trainer, built a fitness company, and then created a fitness community that inspires people to be the best they can be.”

The married father of four and founder of My Holistic Wellness and Maplewood Boot Camps also makes videos of his extensive sneaker collection and puts them on YouTube and Twitter, where they have been viewed more than 4 million times, he says. Sanchez contributes to economic growth by hiring trainers and freelance talent and inspiring others to be bloggers.

Sanchez says that he plans to use the prize money to help spread his inspirational message. “My biggest challenge is ahead. In the face of staggering health care costs and childhood obesity, I want to travel the 50 states. I want to plant the seeds of fitness and encourage others to start fitness boot camps in their communities.”

Name: Tracy Foster
Location: Bowie, Maryland
Business: ONA (a camera bag company)
From her video: “I am free enterprise because I’m introducing a new and innovative product to the market. These are camera bags that are both fashionable and functional. I’m also creating opportunity for my manufacturer, my suppliers, and the freelance designers and photographers that I work with. I really couldn’t do it without these people, and that’s what free enterprise is all about.”

Name: Meredith Bragg
Location: Alexandria, Virginia
Business: Videographer
From his video: “As consumers, we are free enterprise too. We benefit from the service, selection, and creative energy [entrepreneurs] provide, and they benefit from our business. They will keep stocking, baking, and selling these things we love because of our support, and that signals to potential entrepreneurs that maybe their passions will be rewarded too. The end result is more choice and better quality for everyone. This is free enterprise.”

Name: Jennifer Stewart
Location: New York City
Business: JSDNYC (a fashion design company)
From her video: “Since I was a kid, this is all I wanted to do. There was a point in time where I started to go down a different road, and there was a day I woke up and realized if you don’t take it now, you’re never going to take it. It means so much, it’s my childhood, it’s everything I’ve ever known and ever loved.”
 

Names: Celeste Carlucci and Julie Kardachi
Location: New York City
Business: FallStop…Move Strong (fall prevention program for seniors)
From their video: “Our free enterprise dream is to take what we’ve accomplished in New York City communities and bring it to hundreds, thousands, millions across America. As entrepreneurs, we see our business as a social responsibility. As Americans, we enjoy the freedom to take our ideas and make a difference. Free enterprise is doing well by doing good for others.”