A bold idea from two local students is among just 60 semifinalist submissions selected from over 3,700 nationwide to pitch at the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, June 15-16 in downtown Flint.

FLINT, Mich., June 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Olivia Bassarear and Sidney June Keen from Fayetteville, Arkansas have been selected as a semifinalist submission in the Mott Million Dollar Challenge, a national pitch competition for K-12 students.

More than 5,300 young people from all 50 states and Washington, D.C. submitted over 3,700 business ideas and social solutions to the Challenge. From those entries, 1,500 submissions were selected in the first round. Now, the creators behind the top 60 ideas are advancing to compete at a live national event in Flint, Michigan next week.

Olivia Bassarear and Sidney June Keen, 3rd-grade students at Fayetteville Public Schools, created Replush: Stuffed with Purpose, an innovative toy concept designed to help reduce plastic waste. Replush stuffed animals are shipped without traditional stuffing and instead are filled at home with plastic grocery bags that might otherwise be thrown away. Each Replush can be customized with unique features, allowing children to create a one-of-a-kind companion while giving discarded plastic a second life. By transforming everyday waste into a meaningful toy, Olivia and Sidney June hope to inspire families to rethink how they use and reuse plastic while making environmental stewardship fun and engaging for kids.

"A Replush is a meaningful toy that can help us solve our plastic waste problem," said the Replush team in their social pitch to the Mott Million Dollar Challenge.

As a semifinalist, the project will be awarded $5,000. Olivia and Sidney June will pitch live in front of judges during the final competition June 15-16 in Flint.

Funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation as part of its centennial celebration, the Mott Million Dollar Challenge is administered by the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) in collaboration with VentureLab, Young Entrepreneur Institute (YEI), the Afterschool Alliance, Collaborative Communications and the 50 State Afterschool Network. The Challenge is designed to shine a light on entrepreneurship education as a meaningful way to help students build skills they need to navigate and shape the future.

Learn more about the Mott Million Dollar Challenge and explore semifinalist ideas at https://mottmillion.org/60-semifinalist-pitches/.

Contact:
Jen Peters
peters@collaborativecommunications.com

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SOURCE Charles Stewart Mott Foundation