Getting David to the National Competition

David Cantrell has participated in the Invention Convention this past school year. As a result, he has been chosen to represent the State of California at the National Invention Convention at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Michigan, from June 1st to 3rd, 2022. The national competition is a by-invitation-only event and includes students from across the country representing over 100,000 Invention Convention participants. We are thrilled that David has been selected to be one of the 550 student invitees to this prestigious competition. Students will have their inventions on display on the museum floor next to those of world-renowned inventors like Henry Ford, the Wright brothers and Thomas Edison. The program’s theme is creating ideas and inventions that help others – we have learned that David was successful in his endeavor to represent that idea.

 

A little more about David and his invention:

 

David is an 11-year-old 5th grader at Main Street Elementary school in Soquel, CA. When this opportunity came about to participate in the school district’s Invention Convention, David was all over it and had a great idea. Recently, his grandfather had surgery to remove cancer from his ear. David saw that his grandfather struggled to wear bulky bandages that were hard to put on by himself and just weren’t designed right. So David’s mindset was that he wanted to invent an application designed specifically for the ear to help those healing from post-operation procedures and ear injuries. He also wanted the design to be inconspicuous, so people didn’t feel self-conscious going out during their healing process. During his research, he could not find any healthcare products that weren’t cumbersome or difficult to apply without help. So he set forth on designing several prototypes from different materials and settled on what is now called the “Ear Patch” that he built by himself (with a bit of help). Part of the school district’s competition was to present his idea to a panel of judges and describe how his invention would benefit others. Students submitted some great ideas, but the judges were impressed by David’s compassion and want to help others during his presentation – which was from the heart. After being selected to represent the school district at the California Invention Convention, David made a few tweaks to his invention but stood fast with his motivation and compassion behind the creation. Well, we found out on Friday…David won the California Invention Convention and won a special award for the “Most Marketable Product” with a free Patent Application process and legal assistance in moving his invention forward to help others.

 

He has been invited to the National competition from June 1st to June 3rd, 2022, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. We feel this opportunity will be an invaluable educational experience for David. We hope that our community could help fund our family joining David in Detroit to help support him. We estimate flights, hotel, and registration fees; the total cost will be more than $6000 for our family to accompany David.

 

Please help support David - Thank you!!!!!