KELOWNA – The Central Okanagan has one of the highest rates of entrepreneurship in Canada.
But adults have not cornered the business market on innovative ideas.
“We make custom long boards, made out of 1/8 inch think Baltic Birchwood,” explains Harrison Larson and Naveed Wasti, “We’re 12 years old.”
Just like any entrepreneur they are trying to come up with innovative ideas for what is most important to them.
“Our project is the Lockerizer,” says Dana Christakos, “We made this idea because we realized when we got to middle school it is very important to be organized and lockers aren’t made to be organized. They are made to swallow your home work.”
Long boards or Lockerizers these middle and high school students are competing in the Young Entrepreneur Competition, a joint effort between School District 23, the Central Okanagan Development Commission and Okanagan School of Business at Okanagan College.”
Kyleen Myrah with the school says the final teams have gone through 4 months of completion, “That’s 3 rounds of competition, from 74 teams now down to the final 16. 8 middle school and 8 high school.”
The final teams participate in a trade show style Dragon’s Den where they have to give their pitch and demonstrate their product.
In its 19th year the program not only fosters new ideas but, Myrah says, hopes to foster the idea for these entrepreneurs to stay in the Okanagan.
“We don’t want them all to leave here. We want them to think about entrepreneurship as a viable career option. So we want to expose them to this, give them confidence to come up with ideas that benefit our region or where ever they go.”
Whether it is in the Okanagan – it would seem these young entrepreneurs, like 18 year old Cassidy O’Flynn and Arlyn Semeschuk, are highly motivated and know exactly where their products will sell.
“We are an organic fertilizer derived from a closed loop biomass fraction process. Basically it is an eco friendly organic fertilizer and I want to make sure that I get that product out there.”
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