Bend Rotary Club hosts the 2025 Invention Convention

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ)-- Some very creative grade schoolers from William E. Miller Elementary are getting awards for fantastic inventions.

On Tuesday, the Greater Bend Rotary Club had their annual Invention Convention award recognition ceremony.

Elementary students were told to imagine an invention that could make the world a better place. We talked to one student who made a helmet that locks and unlocks e-bikes and another that made a crawfish trap which is safe for newts.

Lucas Wojtkowiak told us: "It's so that kids like teenagers are safer on e-bikes like they have to have the helmet on to activate the e-bike's battery, and so that will make it safer for them."

We also spoke to Jack Peterson, who told us about his Crawfish Ladder: "So what happens is the crayfish crawl up this ladder because there's food down there, but it's in a concealed box, but they can't get to the food, and since they can't swim up they can't escape and this is a trap door, so that's why they can't escape. But if a newt went in here, it could just go straight up. That's why the top's open."

Some of the winning inventions were more fantastic like a trick-or-treating robot or a floating wheelchair. Each winner got a medal, a certificate, and a T-shirt. This event has been running for 35 years, so maybe some of you viewers remember doing this when you were in middle school.