Calling all area MacGyvers: Odom Re-Use company needs your ingenuity.
The innovative company is in the midst of a Used Material Product Design/Build contest to generate three products for sale as take-away keepsakes, all concocted from recycled items. Profits from sales of these items will benefit the Father Fred Foundation.
With three price categories - under $9, under $16 and under $40 - the contest requires that the creation include 90 percent used materials and 50 percent used building materials.
The winners will be selected based on their potential for being made and sold profitably in the company's 11,300 square foot Grawn location.
"We would like to have a reproducible and marketable design that we could continue to use in the store," said Bruce Odom, the owner of Odom Re-Use Company who founded the company in 1998.
"The initial inspiration is that customers would come through, maybe they're visiting or have just discovered us, and they want to support us somehow but they're not remodeling at that time," he added. "They want to take something home with them and the double win is we're maybe finding a use for items we have, like we have hollow core doors coming out of our ears."
Odom, who has always been astounded at his customers' creativity, suggests items that transcend birdhouses. The sky's the limit: ornaments, key chain fobs, picture frames, toys and small household items such as a magazine rack.
Odom and his employees are looking forward to reviewing the designs and prototypes submitted, which are due by November 10.
"It's amazing what people will come up with by looking at things in here," said John Kooiman, a field crew consultant at Odom.
Both the prototype and the design become the property of Odom after they are entered into the contest. The winner in each category will be selected based on anticipated marketability, a projection of how well the product will sell within 30 days. Any unsold product will be returned to their respective designers after 60 days; Odom and the designer will share joint rights to reproduce the design in the future.
The creator for each of the three winning categories will receive the selling price for each unit of their design that sells, minus 15 percent. This profit will be donated to the Father Fred Foundation.
A Grand Prize winner from all categories will also be chosen, with a required minimum of five entrants in the contest, and will receive $100. First and second place winners will also be recognized in each category, if a minimum number of entries are received; they will receive store trade credit and lunch at Baby Reds BBQ in Grawn.
The Used Material Product Design/Build contest reflects the Odom Re-Use Company's mission to reduce waste. The company pays cash for anything it thinks it can sell from home or commercial remodels or demolitions, saving tons of waste from filling area landfills. They then sell these items ranging from school lockers and shelving to plumbing supplies and mortise locks - with everything in between and then some - to an eager client base that includes both individuals and contractors.
"We're such a throwaway society, it's amazing how ingrained it is in us," noted Kooiman. "We have both people coming in looking for specific items and we have an item sought board but we do have people coming in from time to time just to browse and see what we've got."
For more information on the Odom Materials Product Design/Build Contest, call the company at 276-6330 or visit their website at www.odomreuse.com.