Shelburne County teen's winning toy inspired by little sister

A teenager from Nova Scotia's Shelburne County has taken home the top prize in a national toy making contest after creating a stuffed animal inspired by his little sister and her love of solar-powered garden lights.

"My sister has stuffed animals and every night she takes a solar light with her to bed so I thought I'd combine the two," said Jonathan Dares, 15, of Sable River.

Science fair motivation

The motivation for the innovation came from his desire to go to the Canada Wide Science Fair. He went to the one in New Brunswick in 2015.

When his science project didn't make it for this year's event in Quebec, Dares started thinking of ways he could get to Montreal. That's when Dares found out about Spin Master's toy design contest.

"I found out about it online and from the science fair last year and I had to make a toy and submit everything online."

Dares sewed it himself

Dares sewed the stuffed animal himself. It charges through a solar panel on the back and lights up through a heart shaped opening on the chest.

"It was hard to sew in some spots, I had to do some by hand."

When his entry made the top five list, he got to go to Montreal. He said the judges told him the creation was not something they would make, but that was a ruse.

'Quite surprised' by the win

"They already knew I had won so they just said it was a nice idea."

At that time, Dares wasn't too concerned about being the big prize winner because he really just wanted to go to the science fair.

When Dares' name was announced, he said he was "quite surprised" by it all.

$2,500 and a robot

Dares won $2,500 and a four-foot tall robot that took him 12 hours to assemble.

He also won a trip to Toronto in June to tour the Spin Master toy factory.

He'll also find out on that trip if the company will mass produce his stuffed animal. If they do, he'll get a four per cent royalty for every toy sold.