CCHS students sheer winners

A simple yet innovative fashion idea garnered a group of Culpeper County High School students $30,000 in scholarship money Thursday.

Leg Décor competed in the E-Squared, or Entrepreneurial Energy, contest in which high school students developed products and pitched business ideas to area professionals before being evaluated by a panel of six judges.

Judge Mike Dale announced the final scores and winning team Thursday inside the county administration building.

“You are the stars of the competition,” Dale said, addressing all participants. “As you’ll find in life, you’re going to have to compete at some point in some way for the rest of your lives.”

The six-member team — Hannah Hayes, Paul Pham, Andrew Huckabee, Melissa Valentine, Megan Chamberlin and Jessie Nerkowski — will receive $5,000 each toward college.

Thirty teams from CCHS and Eastern View High School participated through the Career & Technical Department and began preparing in January.

Career Partners Inc. worked with the Career and Technical Department and the Culpeper Chamber of Commerce to develop programs and create a competition that introduces the business process to area students.

The winning product — Big-Toed Pantyhose — has a separate cutout for the big toe, allowing women to wear stockings with thong shoes. The hose cost $3 each and are available in five skin tones in full length and knee-high.

Nerkowski, a sophomore at CCHS, said she came up with the idea a few years ago.

“One day I was wearing sandals and thought ‘we need Big-Toed Pantyhose,” she explained.

Leg Décor also created the Big Toed-Mantyhose, a nylon camouflage hose for men who need protection from bugs while hunting or camping in the woods.

The other four final teams competing Thursday were Kalelegomo, Precision, The Team and Step Up. Leg Décor came out on top with 495 points and received investment interest from five out of six judges.

“You did a great job with the marketing and analysis,” judge Jeff Scott told the group.

Nerkowski said her group could patent the Big-Toed Pantyhose and Mantyhose in the future.

After winning, Chamberlin said all of her team’s hard work paid off. “I’m extremely happy,” said the junior. “It was worth all of the sweat and tears that we put into this.”

Valentine agreed.

“It was a good experience,” she said. “Even if you don’t win, you can carry the experience with you. Everything we learned, we’re going to use later in life.”

Lou Owens, a marketing and management teacher for CCHS, beamed in the audience as the judges congratulated her students. “They did a great job of learning about marketing and business and how to write a business plan,” she said.

David Jones, chairman of the Culpeper County Chamber of Commerce, said the competition impressed him.

“With the variety of knowledge needed to make a presentation in a short period of time, they did a super job, considering what they needed to learn,” Jones said.

Chamber President and CEO Jim Charapich said the competition provided a great life experience for the students, calling it “a great foundation for expanding their career opportunities.”