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Toyota awards trip to Japan to lucky schoolgirl

Posted on 29 August, 2017
Toyota awards trip to Japan to lucky schoolgirl

An excited ten-year-old kiwi girl has won a trip to Japan as part of a competition run by Toyota run between last November and February 2017. Over 830,000 children from 79 countries submitted entries to their country’s iteration of the Toyota Dream Car Art Contest, which in New Zealand was run between last November and February 2017. Sophie Irvine, who lives in Palmerston North, won the competition for her vivid imagination, and will get to travel to the home of Toyota for six days. The trip includes two days visit to the Toyota facilities at Nagoya with other winners from the oceanic region. Sophie is set to make the most of her prize. “I am so excited to be off to Japan,” said Sophie, “I have learnt an introduction speech in Japanese that I can share with my hosts.” Sophie was competing in the 8-11 year olds section of the competition, which also catered for under eight year olds and 12-15 year olds, with hundreds of New Zealand children submitting entries. She won for her creative “Bee-Car Seed Library” entry, which collects and sprinkle seeds world-wide to promote more plant growth on earth. Some seeds are funnelled to a library for future use. Toyota New Zealand senior executives, guided by the CEO of Te Manawa Museum, Andy Lowe, judged the entries, with the top three in each age group being submitted to Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan. Artworks were judged on three key elements – the message, the uniqueness and the art characteristics. “When kids have a chance to imagine the future and improve the world their children will live in, there are no boundaries,” said Andrew Davis, Toyota New Zealand’s General Manager of Marketing. “I loved Sophie’s colourful interpretation of the theme and the bee’s Learner plate, she really thought outside the box.” Sophie left for Japan yesterday, and her trip include sight-seeing in Tokyo and Tokyo Disneyland before returning home.