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Locker-Logic makes sense
Cochrane woman’s invention will help students and schools

Samara Cygman
Wednesday September 01, 2004

ALL LOCKERED UP: Cochrane’s Jill Blackie displays the Locker-Logic, which she invented to help students transition from grade to grade and stay organized. Samara Cygman photo

Cochrane Times — An innovative invention created by a Cochrane woman will not only allow schools to earn valuable funds to be put towards programs and equipment, but will ensure the learning experience of the students stacks up against all others.

Jill Blackie’s Locker-Logic -- a locker organizer that fits full- and half-sized lockers and also turns into a shoulder bag -- is manufactured in China and is being released Sept. 1.

She plans to sell the organizer to area schools in a partnership program that Blackie said will benefit students and parents alike.

She got the idea for the compartmentalized product after watching her son’s transition from elementary to middle school a few years ago.

“My kids found it difficult to go from an elementary setting, to all of a sudden, they have a desk, a backpack and a locker,” she said. “This is a common problem for lots of parents and teachers because kids lose assignments, they lose library books. And where do they go? They are often living in the locker.”

The idea kept haunting Blackie, until she decided in January to act. She spent six months designing the product and looking for a manufacturer. With the help of her husband John, who designed the logo and artwork, the project took off.

Using a series of buckles and Velcro, the Locker-Logic organizer unfurls to hang vertically down inside a fulllength locker, splits in two to hang down both sides of a half-sized locker, or binds at both ends to form a bag to carry locker contents home at the end of the school year.

The slim design allows children who share a locker to hang two -- one on either side -- and split the locker vertically, instead of horizontally.

“In the worse case scenario, when kids have to share, it’s a challenge to decide who gets the top and who gets the bottom. This way we’ve divided it vertically,” said Blackie. “It’s a better solution to what kids have to go through now.” And instead of walking out of school on the last day with a bulging garbage bag after cleaning the locker, the organizer folds neatly into a portable shoulder bag.

During a focus group held in the spring, teachers and students from Grade 5 up to the university level, tested the product for a month and came back with rave reviews.

“The Locker-Logic organizer was wonderful for even my most disorganized students,” said Robynn Stirrett, Grade 6 teacher at Manachaban Middle School. “It helped them arrive to class prepared and on time and was so effective that they were able to use the weekly locker clean-up time to do other things.”

Schools can purchase the product for $29.95 and then sell it back to students to make a profit. Blackie suggested a $39.95 retail price.  “It’s a way for schools to make some much-needed funds,” she said.

Brochures about the product will be available through schools, as well as order forms. Interested schools can contact Locker-Logic for promotional materials.

For more information on Locker-Logic, click on www.locker-logic.com or call 932-2508.