By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE
TAURANGA - Oki Dokie, a life-sized puppet and star of a child safety video, has helped win a national title and a trip to Singapore for a group of Otumoetai College students in Tauranga.
The year 13 team has been named Young Enterprise Company of the year with more than 500 copies of the video For Kidz Sake being sold to primary schools and kindergartens.
The safety messages from the bright orange and yellow-coloured Oki have proved to be a hit with 4 to 6-year-olds. In the video, his animated counterpart, Oops, points out dangers in the house, beside the pool and on the road.
It took five students 32 hours to make Oki's Sesame Street-style suit (worn by Megan Carter), while 17 team-mates used their skills on other aspects of the project, including setting up a website.
The four directors of For Kidz Sake - Kendyl Clarke, Stacey Burke, Katherine Peters and Daniel Gray - receive the prize of a week in Singapore, along with their economics teacher, Tony Maguire.
Otumoetai also received one of three excellence awards - the others going to Napier Boys' High and Southland Girls' High - and another for financial management.
Otumoetai has been in the Young Enterprise finals for the past three years and also won in 1998.
More than 170 schools took part in this year's competition, which encourages students to develop, manage and market businesses.
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