By JOSEPH KELLARD
As fishermen are all too familiar with, the hook on a line often seems to latch onto everything from shirts to fingers more than it does the mouths of flounders. Justin, now 17, solved this pesky problem by inventing a trigger-activated, fish-shaped device that casts a bobbin attached to a dart straight out in front of the fisherman. As such, anglers no longer need to cast a line overhead and risk the pain this often causes.
³It¹s safer and it¹s good for handicapped kids who have trouble casting,² Justin said.
Earlier this year, seven years after he thought of his device that he dubbed Aim ¹N¹ Fish, the possibility that it could hit sporting goods stores became more possible, thanks to a company called By Kids for Kids (BKFK).
During those seven years, Justin and his parents found that trying to patent and market his device was too difficult and costly. Justin persisted, however, and last year searched the Internet for other potential avenues to make and market it. He discovered BKFK and its inaugural competition.
From a pool of more than 2,000 budding Edisons who entered, Justin was among the four winners of BKFK¹s Xerox National Invention Competition, which sought innovations in toys, games and sporting goods from kids of all ages.
In June, at the 25th annual international trade show at the Jacob Javits Center, for companies in the licensing business for entertainment and manufacturing, Justin and the other winners received a Chester Award, named after Chester Carlson, the inventor of electrophotography.
³I was really excited about it,² Justin said about the call received telling him he had won. ³And I was really surprised that that many people entered the competition and I had won.²
Laurie, Justin¹s mother, said ³I was so excited, I started screaming. This was a case where you don¹t reach for the stars, you actually touch them.²
BKFK chief operating officer Daniel Gwartz said the company created the competition to invite kids to explore their creativity and submit their ideas for development. ³What we know as an organization is that there are a tremendous amount of good or great ideas from kids that are commercially viable that often have nowhere to go,² Gwartz said from BKFK¹s Connecticut offices. ³We aim to inspire kids to submit their ideas for entrance, or to inspire kids who may not have an idea to challenge themselves through the inventive process. We have a place for them to take their ideas.²
Instantly recognizing Justin¹s Aim N Fish ³a true innovation for an old problem in the sport of fishing,² Gwartz said BKFK is ³really excited² about Justin¹s device, has filed for a patent, and is in the process of speaking to manufacturers to license it. BKFK has already come up with a packaging for Aim N Fish.
³I saw the box they¹re putting it in and it looks so cool,² Justin said. ³It was exciting to see it.²
About the prospect that Aim ¹N¹ Shoot can catch on in the fishing industry and become a hot item, Laurie said, ³We hope it will do well. You can never tell.²
A generally modest, shy boy, Justin is getting accustomed to doing the publicity rounds. In addition to having his accomplishments featured on the Web site for Sports Illustrated for Teens, Justin has done an interview for a segment for young entrepreneurs on the television show Money Matters, and he is expected to appear on an uncoming segment of Teen News, a television show run by kids.
³I used to be kind of shy, and it¹s a little hard doing all these interviews, but its worth it,² Justin said with a laugh that anticipated further success with Aim ¹N¹ Fish due to the publicity.
After he graduates Oceanside High School next spring, Justin plans to study physical education with the goal to become a gym teacher. But he¹ll certainly continue to work on thinking of inventions and is open to seeing where this could lead career-wise.
³I think he has more hope now that he can invent other things after what he came up with,² Laurie said.
Justin has already come up with accessories for Aim ¹N¹ Fish, such as a belt holster to hold the device, and he¹s developing ideas for BKFK¹s next competition, ³Toy World Games,² the winners of which will be announced in November. This time, kids are invited to ³create a new way to play,² Gwartz said. Justin said he has some preliminary ideas for water toys and for another sporting good.
Meanwhile, as an avid fisher who often casts his lines in Rockville Centre, Massapequa and Freeport waters, Justin has already been out using Aim ¹N¹ Fish.
³I¹ve already caught quite a few fish with it,² he said. ³It works real well.²
