Landon Spencer (left) and Lara Turner show their winning prototype in the Junior Dragons' Den contest. They won $500 towards their venture at the April 4, 2019 contest.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/School District 73
April 05, 2019 - 3:30 PM
KAMLOOPS - Two young pet owners have taken home a prize in a Kamloops school district business competition for designing a machine to feed small animals.
Landon Spencer and Lara Turner won first place in the junior category of the Junior Dragons' Den contest last night, April 4, according to a school district media release. The grade six students from RL Clemitson Elementary were one of four teams in the grade four to six category pitching their business ideas to a panel of judges.
Their winning entry was LTS Feeds, named after the students' combined initials. The idea was to develop a small animal feeder that would automatically dispense food on a timer.
"It still doesn’t feel real but it’s really awesome," Turner says.
Necessity was the mother of invention for these two pet owners who don't pretend to be early birds.
"We both hate getting up early in the morning to feed our animals," Spencer says. "And we both thought 'What if we could make a feeder that would do it for us?'"
With their hungry goats, bunnies and chickens in mind the duo brought their presentation to the Junior Dragons Den judges. They had a poster board with a drawing of the product, a cost break-down and a small prototype to demonstrate how the final product would work.
In the end they won $500 to go towards developing their idea. Spencer says they have scouted the internet for parts and the next steps will be to order the items and enlist their dads to help with the build.
"And if it works we’ll probably keep going with this," Spencer says.
Two prizes were awarded in the senior category. Kamloops School of Arts students Emily Waterman, Vivian Hill, and Abbey Seymour won for their Clean Kitchen line of recycled kitchen items. Alia Sandeman-Allen, Sarah Baughan and Rohkeya Diaou from South Kamloops Secondary School won for their Recycled Sounds smartphone speaker made from reclaimed wood.
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