Youngsters win prizes in Toyota car competition

The youngsters were entrants in the Toyota Dream Car art competition, launched internationally last year by Toyota Motor Corporation and open to youngsters under the age of 15, who were invited to each draw a car and have it considered as the shape and look of a possible Toyota model in years to come.
In Zimbabwe, the competition entries were handled by the authorised Toyota distributor, Toyota Zimbabwe, through its two branches in Harare and one in Bulawayo, and several hundred entries were submitted for consideration.
Speaking at the local prizegiving ceremony at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Carl Varga, sales and marketing manager of Toyota Zimbabwe, said: “This was an exciting opportunity for young people to dream up their own idea for a car design  and to draw it for us, entering it in this international competition and standing a chance of winning a prize for doing so. Ultimately, this design could be used in a future Toyota model, which would be extremely rewarding for the young person involved.”
There were three age categories — under-10, 10-12 years and 13-15 years — and for each of these categories five winning entries were selected as the top submissions in the Zimbabwean leg of the competition, each of these receiving a cash prize and each going forward to the international competition.
The world contest features a selection of gold, silver and bronze and other awards, top winners of which will be invited to travel to Japan in August to attend the awards ceremony.
“It would be very exciting for one or more Zimbabwean youngsters to feature in the winners’ list of the world contest, so we are looking forward to hearing of the response from the international judges to our entries from Zimbabwe,” said Varga.
The winners
Under-10: Logan Bulawayo (St Mary’s Anglican Primary School, Chitungwiza), Bright Damba (St Mary’s Anglican Primary School), Phillip Tombe (Carmel School, Bulawayo), Dayen-Leigh Pavlou (Sharon School, Harare) and Emily Hobbs (Sharon School).
10 to 12 years: Desire Chimanikire (Budiriro 2 school, Harare), Laura Munyaka (Highlands junior school, Harare), Panashe Mutandwa, Takudzwa Njeranyama (Kambuzuma 1, Harare), Carlos Mwale (St Mary’s Anglican Primary School).
13 to 15 years: Savana Curry (Harare), Brian Marange (Mufakose 1), Peter Maibvise (Mufakose Mhuriimwe Secondary School), Martin Gwatidzo (Prince Edward, Harare), Ashley Chigora (Mufakose 1).