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Breaking: Teen inventor from Alexander wins national contest with $250K prize

By Howard B. Owens

Andrew Young Jr., the 14-year-old Alexander High School student who saw a commercial for an invention contest while watching the Ellen Show and decided to enter his idea for the "Toaster Shooter," has won a nationwide contest sponsored by Frito-Lay.

The grand prize is $250,000.

"We are blown away," said Andrew's father, Andrew Young Sr. "I don’t know that’s kind of hit us yet. We thought we did a good job and we though we might have won but we didn’t allow ourselves to think we had won so we’re still waiting for it to sink in, including Andrew."

Andrew is in school this morning and not available for comment.

Speaking of school, that's the plan for the $250,000 prize.

"He's not going to be able to buy the Lamborghini like he thought he would," said his father, laughing. "It's a college fund. It's 100 percent a college fund. He wants to go to M.I.T. so we're going to need every penny of it."

Andrew was among five finalists selected to compete in a voting contest. For more than a month votes were collected on the MyDreamVention.com website with multiple votes per person, per device allowed.

The Youngs worked hard to promote the contest locally and in Rochester and Buffalo to help drive votes.

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