STEM-In-Action Follow Up: Bebi Davis

With the countdown to eCYBERMISSION's National Judging & Educational Event underway, we have revisited several of our STEM-In-Action teams to see how their community projects have progressed through out the year. For those that need a refresher, The U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program (AEOP) STEM-In-Action Grant awards eCYBERMISSION teams up to $5,000 to develop their projects into mature and scalable solutions in their community and in 2018, we awarded 5 teams this grant. This week, we're hopping all the way over to our team in Hawaii, Bebi Davis, to see if they were able to say goodbye to a pest problem and hello to a solution for their community!

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A lot happened since we last posted. We had to redesign the packaging label graphics for our pediculicide to reflect the product’s new name: “Ditch Dat!”  It was heartbreaking to have to part ways with our old name “Kaput!,” but we had no choice as a Texas company started using the same name just months before we started using it – and at the time, unbeknownst to us.

We already had some inventory on hand that we had to strip and relabel with the new name.

After relabeling the products, we also had to change our website.  We had to purchase a new domain name (www.ditchdat.com) and redo our website with new photos of the product. 

One day, when a school administrator, Ms. Kimi Firth, saw us working on our project, she approached us to ask questions.  When she found out about our project, she told us about a Young Entrepreneurs association that she was affiliated with.  She said that our product development would be perfect for the Young Entrepreneurs to get involved with, as they could offer us assistance further developing the product and distribution of the product. 

In the past few weeks, we were also referred to the Hawaii Council for the Humanities, as they have several community programs that help the general public.  One of these programs is “Motheread/Fatheread.” This program is affiliated with the national award-winning Motheread® program – in partnership with Title I elementary schools – serving low-income parents, teaching parents the joy of reading (parents who may not know how to read well) so that they can continue reading with their young children, influencing these children to do well in school.   Since the program reaches the very segment of our community – low income parents with young children – that we are hoping to reach and benefit, working with this program could be our chance to do the most good for those who need our help the most.  Through Ms. Dorian Langi at The Hawaii Council for the Humanities, we were referred to Mr. Robert Chang (rchang@hihumanities.org) to distribute our products through the Motehread/Fatheread parental network.

Our biggest breakthrough was getting a commitment from one of the largest news stations in town, KITV4, to feature our grant opportunity with eCybermission.  Ms. Kim Gennaula, who has decades of media experience, offered help to write PR releases for us and present it to Mr. Guy Hagi, who is a long-time newscaster at KITV4.  Ms. Gennaula also mentioned another publication that she believes would be interested in our story.  We very much look forward to finalizing the details of going on TV in the coming weeks!

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From "Kaput!" to "Ditch Dat!", Team Bebi Davis' mission has certainly progressed! We cannot wait to see how their mission continues past eCYBERMISSION and how they will influence their community's future. Keep that brainstorming brewing and we'll be the first to watch them make their difference.

-Mission Control