tBR Op-Ed by Simonetta Lulli on the Importance of Participating in the Young Inventor Challenge
by The Bloom Report | 30 Sep 2021
The Bloom Report
(Editor's note: this op-ed can also be found on Linkedin)
I just heard that #YoungInventorchallenge that People of Play organizes has opened for registration here: https://www.chitag.com/yic and I thought was the time for me to share the amazing experience my 3 kids and 2 friends had last year with the #YoungInventorchallenge organized by Mary Couzin and Team. My kids & friends (from 8 -14 years old) WON one of the categories with Diamond Heist Card game https://lnkd.in/gtSinCcK.
COVID was very hard for kids, they were having a FULL year remote schooling, no socializing. Me and some amazing employees volunteers from #SpinMaster created a small summer program for the employee kids called : Design a Toy with Spin Master. We had an amazing response from many kids and parents from inside the company. Among those who joined were my kids and their friends.
The kids created " The Bagel Club" as their " company name" and a card game called Diamond Heist. After the Spin Master program, they worked hard on the game and applied to the #YounginventorChallenge and they WON the best game category that Goliath sponsored. They were thrilled. But the story did not stop there, Goliath Games team, Julie Doverspike, David Norman, Kelly Adams meet with them several times over the months to explain them how games worked, to test their game and to present it to Retailers in US. They got to present in live zoom events and the amount of learning my kids and friends got from this experience I believe is much much more than the fact they won the award.
I never told Goliath Games or the People of Play that I worked in Spin Master at the time or who I was until many months later when I met Mary Couzin for something else and I told Jazmine Darden.I think still Goliath team does not know as I do not share the same last name as my kids. I wanted my kids to experience the full challenge on their own.
.png "Diamond Heist")
This long story is to THANK EVERYONE that participates in this, from the volunteer Judges, to the whole #YounginventorChallenge team, People of Play, Jazmine Darden, Mary Couzin and many other people that make this amazing challenge and program possible. My kids # # # # were part as well of Innovation World with Juli Shively that I thank as well.
I encourage everyone that has kids to participate, it helps the kids with skills like creativity, video recording, editing, talk in public, presentation skills, some math and engineering ( depending on the game), teamwork and so many more benefits that is worth so much that I can not explain. This is a priceless MINIMASTER trough play.
Thanks from The Bagel Club and us parents for this experience, we will never forget it!
I leave here the video of the game the kids created & won the award with last year. I guarantee you I had 0 input in the game or the video, the kids never allowed me to give them my opinion.
.png "Diamond Heist 2")
