WelCom February 2019:
David Ivory
St John’s College Social Enterprise Team and creators of ‘GEORGE’ took out two of the six National Excellence Awards at the Young Enterprise Scheme gala event in Wellington, December 6, 2018.
The Hastings team of eight Year 12 and 13 students, won the Unitec Award for Enterprising Technology and the Gallagher Award for Smart Technology.
GEORGE is a device that records water-level flow and rain fall to provide each owner with real time data text alerts. The students created it as a response to the increase in adverse weather events and their devastating effects on people and properties.
The students have a commercial partnership with Ravensdown (NZ) and a community partnership with What Ever It Takes (WIT) – the Hawke’s Bay regional provider of mental health services. GEORGE sales proceeds are donated to WIT to support its mental health services.
GEORGE Directors Benjamin Gardiner, Brad Selwood, Rhyva van Onselen, Shea McDonald, Jack Gardner, Kadyn Newport, and Jake McIvor, Principal Paul Melloy and WIT Managers Karen Harris and Caroline Lampp, travelled to Wellington for awards event.
Bill Gallagher, CEO of the Gallagher Group (a global entity), presented his company’s award and invited the team to his Hamilton headquarters to visit their Research & Development faculty in 2019.
The Deputy Prime Minister Hon Winston Peters and the Minister of Finance Hon Grant Robertson, met the Directors to hear more about their commercial enterprise, which uses innovative technology and social enterprise that supports a community partnership.
The team is donating their award money to WIT and St John’s College plans to engage with WIT in 2019 through its Young Vinnies Group.