Hastings Girls' High School student Ahnaliyah Maas with her Wooden Treasures product. Photo / Paul Taylor
Hastings Girls' High School student Ahnaliyah Maas with her Wooden Treasures product. Photo / Paul Taylor
The brightest young inventors from throughout Hawke's Bay have been chosen for a special awards night and final pitch - in what could be the making of the region's next big start-up.
The inventions range from a firelighter made out of beeswax and orange peels, to a skin-care line madeentirely out of natural ingredients, to a wooden jigsaw puzzle with a twist.
Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce runs its Young Enterprise (YES) event each year inviting schools to work on inventions and business ideas.
The best six teams have now been selected for the East Coast regional final - covering Hawke's Bay and Gisborne - which will be staged on Thursday evening at EIT in Taradale.
The winning team will be invited to a national final scheduled for December 15.
"Welcoming Gisborne/Tairāwhiti into our region this year has meant greater collaboration across the East Coast, more students involved, more schools, more innovation and overall more opportunities for teams," Karla Lee, the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO, said.
The Taradale High School team behind Blossom display their product. Photo / Supplied
"2021 brought together more YES teams and students than ever before, making the prestigious East Coast Regional Awards event even bigger and better."
A total of 370 students from 16 schools took part in the YES East Coast competition this year.
Schools represented in the regional final include Taradale High School (three teams), Napier Girls' High School, Hastings Girls' High School, and Karamu High School.
Finalists and their inventions:
Product name: Tutuki Creative Hub Tutuki Creative Hub is an online marketplace where Kiwi creators can promote and sell their work nationwide. Artists can connect and interact with potential buyers in a fun and easy way. School: Taradale High School Members: Marjolaine Stranaghan, Tamar van Niekerk, Jacob Siaosi and Maite Dechering
Product name: Exfoliate Me Exfoliate Me is a hand-made, natural skincare line produced from eco-friendly ingredients to create a sustainable future. It includes crochet face cloths and eye pads among the sustainable range. School: Napier Girls' High School Members: Ellie Panton, Abbey Craig, Sophie Turner and Alyssa Harrison.
Product name: Kind Light A natural way to start your fire made from beeswax, sawdust and dried orange peel. Kind Light firestarters create a great fire with no need for additional materials. They are long lasting and kinder to the planet than traditional firestarters. School: Taradale High School Members: Oliver Kendall-Jackson, Fred Sugden and Emma Teraguchi.
Product name: Wooden Treasures Wooden jigsaw puzzles for young tamariki, with numerical values, shapes and reo Māori numbers. School: Hastings Girls' High School Member: Ahnaliyah Maas
Product: Wooly Bones Eco-friendly pet toys that use wool from a local farm. Farmers are doing it tough with wool pricing. Wooly Bones forged a relationship with a local farm to pay a higher price per kilogram of wool to give a little back to the farming community. School: Karamu High School Members: Emily Morgan and LJ Henderson-Ereatara
Product name: Blossom This eco-friendly plant fertiliser is kind to the planet and your plants. Blossom fertiliser is made using waste products from the hospitality industry that help indoor and outdoor plants thrive. School: Taradale High School Members: Nate Simes, Harry Berryman, Declan Monteith, Logan Geary and Aidan Finn
