By ANEEKA SIMONIS
A DETERMINED 15-year-old will soon open her own arcade store in Kooweerup to get her peers off the streets and socialising in a safe and secure environment.
Elizabeth ‘Lulu’ Dingle will open up Toyphoon Lulu at the beginning of next month to provide young people a local outlet for clean fun.
The Rossiter Road shop will be stacked with toys and arcade machines, food and drinks.
“I know a lot of friends and kids who don’t do the best things on their weekends,” said the Kooweerup Secondary College year 10 student.
“Kids have started doing drugs, drinking alcohol and having parties.”
Lulu, who works at the newsagency in town, put all of her savings together to buy a large amount of toys, puzzles and sporting equipment from a toy store owner who went out of business.
“I’ve got board games, puzzles, bouncy balls, tricycles, baby toys, bikes, dart boards, Lego and educational books – most are brands we buy.”
She said she plans to sell the toys at a heavily reduced price to parents to make way for her real dream – opening up her own arcade store.
“At the moment we have a claw machine and a skill-tester,” said Lulu who is the first of her eight siblings to own her own business.
She said she hopes the store, which is the old Kava Lounge cafe, will drive her bored peers off the streets and into her store.
“It’ll give them the opportunity to have a look and play around and have something to eat,” she said.
Her mother Tanya Dingle is proud of her daughter who has a “good head on her shoulders” and is working to improve many lives in the town through the local, safe space.
“If she sells everything, she can buy more games then turn it into an arcade to get kids off the streets,” she said.
“Being in the town, we know what goes on.
“Instead of hanging on the streets and vandalising, doing drugs or drinking alcohol, (young people) will have somewhere to go that’s safe without having to worry about taking late night buses (out of town) or rely on their parents to get places.”
She said the store would be closely supervised by an adult at all times but Lulu said she plans to make her face well known in the store.
“If I can squeeze in homework, I can run a shop as well,” Lulu said.
Toyphoon Lulu is expected to open at the start of March.
