#Wyostrong: Meeteetse Junior High Team Named Best In Nation In App Challenge

#wyostrong by Pinnacle Bank Posted On February 15, 2017

#WyoStrong stories, brought to you by Pinnacle Bank of Wyoming, highlight Wyoming perseverance, ingenuity, creativity and resilience.

A team of students from Meeteetse Junior High in Meeteetse, Wyoming has been named a Best in Nation winner in the fifth annual Verizon Innovative Learning app challenge for its Farmersbook mobile app concept. The team was given a surprise award ceremony this morning. As one of eight Best in Nation winners in this year’s competition, the Farmersbook student team will receive:

· A total of $20,000 from the Verizon Foundation for their school;

· Tablets for each student team member;

· The opportunity to work with experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) App Inventor team to build their concepts into apps available in the Google Play Store; and

· An all-expenses-paid trip to the Technology Student Association (TSA) Conference in Orlando, Fla., in June, 2017, to present their finished apps.

“I’m really proud of these kids and their hard work,” Team Advisor Mike Power said. “For the little school of Meeteetse to take the stage with large schools across the nation, and then win, is a true testament of the quality of the students, and the education that we strive to provide in Meeteetse. The concept of the app will not only solve a true need in our rural community, but also can be scaled to a national (or even global) scale helping people living in food deserts. This app will not only benefit our local region, but potentially the world.”

The beat out nearly 1,800 other submissions from across the country. The idea for Farmersbook was inspired by Meeteetse’s classification as a food desert, meaning it’s over ten miles from a grocery store and its inhabitants have difficulty getting to a supermarket where they can get decent food. The Farmersbook app is a virtual farmer’s market for the home and hobby gardener to sell their locally-sourced fruit and vegetable crops to individuals searching for fresh, healthy produce.