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Lions among top winners in Idea Pitch Competition at Lakeland Community College
Dane Berschig Skylar Palisin  Jonathan Sharp 

Senior Skylar Palisin and the team of juniors Dane Berschig and Jonathan Sharp snagged two of the top awards in Lakeland Community College's Idea Pitch Competition last week.
  
In a format similar to the popular "Shark Tank" television series, the competition gave local college and high school students the opportunity to pitch their novel product ideas to a team of local entrepreneurs. Out of 40 proposals submitted, judges selected only 10, including three from NDCL, to compete for four awards during the final competition on November 13. 
  
  

 
Click the image above to watch juniors Dane Berschig and Jon Sharp describe their product to the panel of judges during the finals of Lakeland's Idea Pitch Competition. The entrepreneurial duo won a $500 runner-up prize.
Skylar won a runner-up prize of $500 for her pitch of Children Helped by Infrared Protection for Pools (CHIPP), a product designed to dramatically reduce children’s risk of drowning through the use of pyroelectric infrared sensor technology. CHIPP picks up motion to trigger an alarm when a child walks or crawls in and out of the sensor's range.
  
Dane and Jonathan also won a runner-up prize of $500 for Coffee Time, an alarm clock and app combination to help reduce use of the snooze button by diffusing oils such as coffee, orange, or mint at wake-up time and then requiring the user to solve a digital puzzle to turn off the alarm.
   
In addition to Dane, Jonathan, and Skylar, NDCL students who made it to the finals included the team of sophomores Veronica Mekhel and Jenna Veri and junior Erin Gemmell. Science teacher Miss Kelly Maduri facilitated the students' participation in the competition.