Sneaker Villa and Teddy Bowens (Wilmington Sneaker Villa manager) were honored at the 2008 Arts & Business Council Awards in Philadelphia on May 9th. The Arts and Business Council of Philadelphia honored Sneaker Villa for the good work Teddy performed last year with Art Reach. Teddy collaborated with Art Reach on a unique community-based, socially-conscious arts project in North Philadelphia . The project brought together a group of students from William Penn High School and gave them an opportunity to create a positive response to the growing violence in Philadelphia . Over the course of 12 weeks, the students learned how to create original designs with an anti-violence theme and silk-screened them onto t-shirts. One of the finished t-shirt designs was mass-produced and sold at the Broad and Thompson Sneaker Villa location, with the proceeds benefiting the William Penn high school. The Awards ceremony was held at Grand Ballroom, Pennsylvania Convention Center .