YES Trade Fair successful

YES Trade Fair successful

Saturday’s wintry blast provided perfect conditions to draw shoppers to the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise (YES) Scheme Trade Fair in The Palms Shopping Centre over the weekend.

Eleven different schools had companies displaying goods and services and Canterbury Development Corporation’s YES coordinator Karen Goldsworthy says the Trade Fair took The Palms by storm on both Saturday and Sunday.

“It was fantastic that these young people got to see what the public thought of the fruits of their labours over the past few months. Shoppers were very enthusiastic,” Ms Goldsworthy says.

The thought of chomping into Avonside Girls’ microwave-able muffins and Rangiora High School’s English sausages tempted many passers-by. Social responsibility was encouraged through Catholic Cathedral Colleges anti-spiking device and Rangiora Highs’ breathalysers; reusable Kiwiana carry bags were popular with shoppers needing a little help carrying their purchases, especially Middleton Grange’s tempting fudge; the fashion conscious took advantage of Marian College’s stunning headbands and Catholic Cathedral College offered 2-in-1 mascara and remover pens as a must-have in any girl’s handbag.

Rudolf Steiner’s charming gnomes were a big talking point; Middleton Grange and Kaiapoi High’s delicious recipe books were inspiring; and the sports enthusiast was catered for with Papanui High’s high impact sock bands, shoelace bands and sports bottle holsters.

Another Avonside Girls’ team made the world a little more colourful with their children’s craft kits; while Rangi Ruru made the coffee table more stylish with their glass coasters.

The 100% Kiwi made message was encouraged by St Thomas of Canterbury’s hemp caps. And cars across Canterbury are smelling sweeter with Middleton Grange’s Kiwi air fresheners.

Through the scheme, the students have formed companies, come up with ideas for a product or service, generated start-up funds, produced business plans and prepared their goods for the market.

Ross Sheppard from Display Solutions had the huge task of judging the stalls for:

• Best customer service
• Best YES promotion award
• Best product/ service award
• Best stall award

An award ceremony will take place on Thursday 21 August at the D&A College.

CDC runs the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) for the Canterbury region.

YES Canterbury has attracted more than 300 students grouped into 62 companies from 16 secondary schools including: Ashburton College, Avonside Girls High School, Catholic Cathedral, Christchurch Girls High, Kaiapoi High School, Linwood College, Marian College, Middleton Grange, Papanui High School, Rangi Ruru Girls School, Rangiora High School, Rudolph Steiner, Shirley Boys’ High School, St Andrews College, St Thomas of Canterbury and Villa Maria.

In October YES teams enter regional awards assessed on a combination of marks from the business presentation competition; annual report; their progress in running their business throughout the year. As well as a trophy and cash prize, the Canterbury winner then goes on to compete in the national awards in Wellington in November.

ENDS

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