photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Peter Morsches, 12, attends Tuesday’s Lawrence City Commission meeting to be recognized for his project in the Douglas County Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Several Lawrence students have recently been recognized for their small-business prowess in the fifth annual Douglas County Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge.

Among them is West Middle School student Peter Morsches, 12, who won second place in the contest, earning $750. Morsches was the youngest competitor in the history of the contest.

“Peter was the only middle school competitor in this contest, and he was the only one we’ve ever had,” Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicoeur said.

Peter, a seventh grader, earned second place for a business called Weaponscraft.

“I had an idea for this business before the competition, but this gave me the motivation to write down the plan,” Peter said. “(At Weaponscraft) we sell sheets of cardboard with outlines that you cut out and glue together using assembly instructions. The idea is to increase learning and improve engineer creativity within the school system.”

Peter’s business plan says the mission of Weaponscraft is to “unlock the pride and creativity of engineering in kids.”

All applicants had to write a business plan and an executive summary, as well as craft and perform an “elevator pitch,” which is an easy to understand product description, and give a formal presentation. The Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge, or YEC, intends to expose local kids to the opportunities and challenges of entrepreneurship. In years past, students have crafted plans for businesses offering clothing, jewelry, taxidermy, pet sitting and swimming lessons.

This year’s first-place winner, Charlie Andrade, who attends Free State High School, won for a business called Farm Fresh. Andrade said he first got the idea while traveling in the region and seeing how local farmers struggle to reach customers.

“It’s basically the GrubHub or UberEats of agriculture,” Andrade said. “You choose the (farm) food you want and then it’s delivered to you.”

Third- and fourth-place winners were Maddock Oberzan and Kenton Simmons, both of Lawrence High School. They each won $500. Oberzan’s product dealt with core learning, and Simmons’ was sneakers related.

Douglas County is able to provide this contest through a partnership with Network Kansas.

“We do this program because we have access to the award funds through our partnership with Network Kansas, a small-business loan fund,” Jolicoeur said. “The prize money is part of the mission of Network Kansas to encourage that next generation of entrepreneurship.”

Nate Morsches, Peter’s father and co-owner of Restaurant Pub and Games in downtown Lawrence, thinks the contest inspired his son to take a nebulous idea and make it more concrete.

“The YEC motivated my son to put structure onto his idea,” Nate said. “As adults, we don’t have the luxury of extrinsic motivation like this. We just have to pull up our bootstraps and figure things out, and most of us never get around to doing that when it comes to entrepreneurship. But as youth, this contest serves as a really great way to get them to see the opportunity of what they’re actually capable of creating.”

This year was real estate agent Taylor LaRue’s third year judging the contest.

“It is always incredible to see how the students come up with a business idea on the premise of finding a solution to a problem they identified in their personal lives or society,” LaRue said. “Each student who participated devoted a large amount of time and effort preparing for this competition. … I’ll be keeping my eyes open to see if any of the students move forward with their business ideas post-competition.”

Andrade, who earned $1,250 in prize money, plans to funnel the funds into a clothing brand, inspired by Cactus Plant Flea Market, rather than the business that he won with.

Peter plans to pour his winnings into Weaponscraft.

“I’m going to invest it all,” he said.