After years of grumbling about picking up yard waste Toronto inventor, Augustine Jones decided to turn frustration to ingenuity and create a product that works. He invented the Skooper, created a prototype and hit the road to sell it. He got off the couch, created drawings, enrolled experts, approached manufacturers to help him produce a prototype.

It’s an idea so simple you wonder why no one thought of it before. Every year Augustine fills 36 bags with yard waste. Like most people he uses a rake to gather the leaves and debris. When it comes time to lift it into the bag the rake is hard to use. A lot of the material doesn’t make it into the waste bag. The Skooper makes it much easier to pick up get it all into the bag. It also eliminates the need to touch messy yard waste, which could contain things like broken glass, sticky leaves or a present from a neighbourhood dog. The Skooper is two curved blades with built in handles that allow you to scrape the material together and dispose of it efficiently.

Within weeks of producing the first units the product showed signs of success. Augustine started by selling to friends and neighbours. On weekends he hit the streets approaching people in their gardens. Seven out of every ten people he approached wanted a Skooper. As they say, the rest is history. He soon developed the website to handle orders from across Canada and the U.S.

Augustine’s journey is a clear example of how with a little elbow grease and determination, a simple idea can be turned into an international product that fills a need and helps communities in more than one way.