PORT ANGELES — Four finalists will compete for more than $3,000 in prizes during the final round of the fourth annual Youth Entrepreneur Challenge tonight.
The finalists — all Port Angeles High School students — will begin presenting 10-minute summaries of their business plans at 4 p.m. at the Lincoln Center, 905 W. Ninth St., Port Angeles.
Awards will be announced at about 7:30 p.m. after judges, who already have reviewed the written business plans, deliberate, said Linty Hopie, Peninsula College entrepreneurship coordinator.
“We highly encourage the public to attend and support these kids who have stepped out of the norm to do these projects,” Hopie said.
The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe, which is sponsoring the contest organized by the Entrepreneur Institute, has donated $3,000 for awards.
Additional awards will come from One Group Consulting, Hopie said, and other prizes may be in the works.
Hopie said there would be a “surprise announcement” about the distribution of the awards at the beginning of today’s round of competition.
The four finalists’ business plans, culled from a field of 12 during a preliminary round Monday night, and those who created them are:
■ T.A.P. Tactical Airsoft Paintball — a paintball field, planned by Tim Acheson, Coty Apperson, Lyle Baum and Parker Brye.
■ Mermaid Tears — a sea glass jewelry-making business, planned by Chantell Schultz and Heavyn Olea.
■ Over-Joyed — a coffee and pastry shop, planned by Elle McGlocklin.
■ KONO Athletics — a nonprofit partnership with the Port Angeles School District to use an inflatable building for an indoor soccer and tennis facility, planned by A.J. Konopaski.
Over-Joyed is unique in that it is the only business planned outside of Port Angeles, Hopie said.
“She has done extensive research on locating it in a neighborhood in Seattle,” she said.
Konopaski’s plan would use the “bubble building” now in storage at William R. Fairchild International Airport.
The inflatable “bubble” was donated in 2007 to the Clallam County YMCA by the U.S. Tennis Association in New Jersey for the cost of shipping. The YMCA acted at the urging of the Peninsula Tennis Club, which could not apply because it is not a nonprofit group.
After attempting to site the building in Port Angeles, the club requested that the Sequim School District consider it. The School Board has not acted on the request.
The judges for the final round are:
■ Bill Sperry, owner of 110 Business Park, Forks.
■ Peter Quinn, owner of The Writers’ Workshoppe, Port Townsend.
■ Nathan West, director of community and economic development for the city of Port Angeles.
■ Edna Petersen, owner of Necessities and Temptations gift shop, Port Angeles.
■ Peter Church-Smith, business leader in Sequim.
For more information, visit www.pceinstitute.com.
