By Laura Mueller
While most 12 year olds are content to trade their unwanted snacks for a treat at lunchtime, Jack Krentz has something bigger in mind – a television for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. And he began with one fantastic red paper clip to start the bidding.
Jack, a Grade 7 student at Glashan Intermediate School, hopes to recreate the success of Kyle MacDonald, a Montreal man who used the internet to trade up from a paper clip to a house.
Jack’s initial goal was less lofty – he wanted to trade his paper clip for other items until he got himself an iPod. But when his mother, Robyn Krentz, suggested that he should be more charitable, Jack quickly rethought his goal and contacted CHEO to find out how he could help.
“I thought, can you imagine if [MacDonald] had done it for charity?” says Robyn Krentz.
Jack says he chose CHEO because he spent a short time there a few years ago after he fell and blacked out while playing hockey.
He was inspired to do the project when he heard MacDonald’s story on the radio in April. MacDonald caught the attention by trading up from a paper clip to one year’s rent in Phoenix, Arizona, and he has since achieved his goal by trading for a house in Kipling, Saskatchewan.
“From a paper clip to that? My first thought was ‘that would be fun,’” says Jack.
After brainstorming ideas for his project, Jack says he e-mailed MacDonald to get permission to use the idea.
Since MacDonald’s success depended on the popularity of his weblog, Jack says it was “only natural” for him to set up his own website. At the insistence of his parents, Jack learned the programming needed to build his own home page, www.oneredpaperclipjr.com, which went online in mid-August.
The site is a success. Jack says that he has received words of encouragement and trade offers through the website.
His first three trades came from friends and family members, but Jack hopes that as more people find out about his project, more people will want to help him reach his goal.
The website was the starting point for Jack’s latest trade. His savvy bartering skills landed him an MP3 player and a leather jacket in exchange for a spa gift certificate.
MacDonald was able to achieve his goal of a house in one year, and Jack is hoping to repeat that success. He thinks it will take seven or eight trades before he reaches that target. Jack has another reason to keep trading – if he reaches his goal, his mother will chip in half the cost of an iPod.
How will Jack put his finely tuned negotiating skills to use in the future? He says that if his website gets a lot of attention he might pursue another similar project.
CHEO special events manager Carmen Wynn says she was in disbelief when she received Jack’s offer. “I had to read it twice!” she says. “It’s awesome that he’s willing to help, we’d encourage him to do it again.”