Hatboro-Horsham student wins National Inventors Competition

Emery Alderson with her Slap Happy protoype

Emery Alderson, who will be a fourth grade student at Simmons Elementary in the fall, was a junior winner of Chicago Toy Fair’s Young Inventor Challenge with her invention of the Slap Happy.

“The Slap Happy allows teams to show good sportsmanship by high fiving without spreading germs,” said Alderson, who is a competitive swimmer. “I got the idea from COVID-19. When people get back to their sports, they’re not going to want to get sick so while we can’t high five, we can still Slap Happy.”

Her design of the Slap Happy is a handle with a hand attached to it. The center of the hand is magnetic and features a removable magnet with the Slap Happy logo. Customers can also order customizable magnets for school districts and sports teams that can be interchanged.

In Alderson’s enrichment class taught by Kelly Bozzomo, the theme of study for the year was inventions. After coming across the Young Inventors Challenge, Bozzomo encouraged her students to enter because they all created original games for her class.

Bozzomo says that Alderson is very open to suggestions and feedback. She asks her “What if?” and “What do you think about…?” to let Alderson take the lead on her inventions. “Emery takes that and really embraces challenges, which I feel truly led to her success in winning,” said Bozzomo. Emery’s mom, Amy Alderson, helped her film and create the video pitch that was required for submission.

The simple yet highly functional design will allow the Slap Happy to be inexpensive to manufacture and easy to market by a toy company. What’s next for Slap Happy? Maybe Shark Tank suggests Emery.