Super Students
Saturday, October 3, 1998
Name: Whitney Torigoe
Age: 10
School: Aina Haina
Favorite subject: Gifted and Talented
Pastimes: Reading, fishing, Beanie Babies
Future: Veterinarian
What do you get when you combine two cups, an aluminum sand spike, a PVC pipe and some cable cord? Her invention caught award
Whitney Torigoe's "Bait Mate."
The 10-year-old took first place in the Entrepreneur Invention Society's national competition this year. A fishing caddy that is anchored to the ground by a sand spike, the Bait Mate holds fishing bait and pole in one, easily accessible place.
Torigoe said accessibility is the key to the Bait Mate's success. For the avid fisherwoman, baiting hooks quickly and keeping her bait sand-free was a problem. "The Bait Mate helps me get my bait easier," she said. It also stores her green spinner fishing pole, a step up from the bamboo pole she used "as a child."
Aina Haina School Gifted and Talented teacher June Kadomoto said Torigoe gave up recess and stayed after school to finish her invention, and made a creative commercial to market her product featuring an animated fish in before (swimming) and after (dinner) shots.
"She's a very driven person," Kadomoto said. "Very outstanding, very responsible and very motivated ... a very well-balanced, all-around child."
Torigoe hopes to sell a version of the Bait Mate -- using less expensive but still hardy materials -- to fishermen or stores. But that's in the future.
Said Torigoe: "We're having a kind of hyper life right now. I need to find more time."
Kimberly K. Fu, Star-Bulletin
