A dog-friendly idea wins prize
Aden Fisher’s mum was trying to decide where to walk the dog when Aden had an idea.
The 15-year-old and her schoolmate, Olivia Milsom, had been brainstorming ideas for their compulsory school community project and decided to help others having a similar dilemma, by creating a website compiling dog-friendly walks.
‘‘As soon as we came up with the idea, we got in touch with a web design programmer,’’ Aden says.
The Kristin School project took six months, but Aden says the pair kept working on it to perfect the site.
The site currently lists nine dogfriendly walks from Omaha to Narrow Neck and includes dog-friendly cafes.
Olivia says they hope to continue to grow the site.
‘‘We added our nine basic walks for the Kristin project. Now we’re adding others and that’s going to involve surveying,’’ the 15-year-old from Auckland says.
‘‘We’re trying to add a forum, so people can add their own walks. So, it will keep going even when we’re not running it.’’
The pair’s project saw them win their age category at the Community Problem Solving division of Future
‘‘We're trying to add a forum, so people can add their own walks. So, it will keep going even when we're not running it.’’
Problem Solving New Zealand.
They’ll now take their project to the International Future Problem Solving competition in Wisconsin in June.
Before then, the pair hopes to develop an app, with the help of a former Kristin School student, and continue to build the website.
‘‘It doesn’t have to be done in time for future problem-solving. It’s not done and dusted,’’ Aden says.
‘‘We really want to emphasise the fact we want our website to keep going even when we’re not working on it.’’
One of the walks suggested by the website is along Takapuna Beach and the pair thinks the recent controversy around whether dogs should be allowed there is a shame.
‘‘I practically live on the beach and walk there every day, so I’m very against it,’’ Aden says.
‘‘It’s a wasted opportunity.’’
Visit mydogjourney.nz to view or suggest dog-friendly walks.