THE LAST REAL CHEESE COMPANY

Young Enterprise gives the students the opportunity to establish a company and allows them to experience what life is like outside of the classroom. The beauty of Young Enterprise is that it's not about who makes the most money but instead it's about the journey and this captures what Young Enterprise is all about.

This year our company, The Last Real Cheese Company, set out to develop a socially conscious product. This product was Smelly and Tasty Cheese. Our product was based around the idea that when you lose a sense your other senses get stronger and we wanted to emphasize the sense of smell and taste. Blind people may have lost sight, and the deaf may have lost hearing, however this means that their sense of smell and taste is much better than ours. We wanted to make a product that would help these people and cheese has helped to make people more aware of these organisations.

We hosted an evening called the Smelly and Tasty Cheese Awards 2010 out at Sandihurst Winery. There were three blind judges and three deaf judges. Barry's Bay entered six different cheeses and Gruff Junction also entered six. Our judges gave each cheese a 'smelly' score and a 'tasty' score out of 10. We also had samples for our guests to try. This evening was very successful and everyone who attended had a great night and was able to purchase some of Sandihurst's finest wines to wash down the cheese with. The evening was a great success and from here we had our Smelliest and our Tastiest cheese. This now allowed us to start selling our Award Winning Cheese.

A lot of our sales were made at the Palms Regional Trade Fair. This was a good place to start selling as it was well advertised and the people of Canterbury were very supportive of our company. We also booked a stall at the Riccarton Market and made considerable sales there; however the Christchurch Earthquake disrupted our ability to continue selling in the weeks that followed. For us it has been a successful year. We have talked to people we often wouldn't associate with and it has made us realise that every person in this world has a different story to tell. We have formed strong bonds with the cheese companies and working with the Blind and Deaf communities has been an experience we will never forget. It's so interesting to listen to their story and to be able to tell people about your experiences. Through the Young Enterprise Scheme we have been able to improve our communication skills and our view on life. We often take things like sight and hearing for granted and we don't realise what life would be like to never be able to see again or to never be able to hear. This journey has been one that we will never forget and something that will definitely set us up for the future.

We would like to thank everyone that has helped us along the way. This includes Sandihurst Winery, Gruff Junction, Barry's Bay, Sprint Print, Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind and the Young Enterprise Scheme And a special thanks to Mrs. Yvonne Shields, our teacher, and Mr. Bevan Killick our Mentor. Thank you so much to everyone that has made this year possible and we look forward to continuing with the connections and friendships we have made.