For the first time ever, the Making the Difference Through Design Program has developed a winning design into an actual product.

Given the success of the Scoot-2-School scooter, Woolworths embarked on a project with industry professionals to produce 45 of these winning designs.  These scooters were today donated to Ibhongo High School in Soweto.

“The scooters directly address a solution to problems facing our communities,” said David Makganyoga, School Principal at Ibhongo High School. “The research showed that 76% of South African learners walk to school and this scooter prototype decreases our learner’s time to get to school from 35 minutes, to just 9 minutes.”

The Scoot-2-School scooter not only gets learners to school on time, the scooters are made from mostly recycled materials which makes them easy to maintain and cost effective. It will further benefit learners from a fitness perspective – using the kick scooter every day learners will get plenty of exercise that will promote even better learning in the classroom.

“By donating these scooters to the school, we hope that other learners will be inspired and motivated to produce their own scooters that they can use on a daily basis,” said Principal Makganyoga.

Artemis Spyropoulos, a Grade 12 learner at Red Hill High School in Sandton, designed the lightweight Scoot-2-School scooter, which won the national Making the Difference Through Design competition in 2012.

“My inspiration was based on the fact that over 500,000 children spend more than one hour walking to and from school every day,” said Artemis at the handover. “The Scoot-2-School scooter is my contribution towards changing the world through simple solutions that address our planets most pressing problems,” she concluded.

The Making the Difference Through Design competition teaches high school learners about the value of design in our everyday lives. The annual design competition for schools motivates original and innovative design ideas that develop awareness of environment issues and social development.

“Woolworth’s has an ongoing commitment to education and design,” Says Pieter Twine, Manger:  Loyalty and MySchool at Woolworths. “As a business, we are passionate about design and proud to be part of a design programme that is helping to bring about positive change in our communities.”