DA VINCI
SCIENCE CENTER LAUNCHES $2.5M CAMPAIGN
WITH WIND POWER
News Date
April 30, 2010
The Da Vinci Science Center opened its 50-For-50 Campaign Friday to sustain and grow its impact and unveiled plans to add two wind turbines to its building in Allentown, Pa.
Friday's news conference
also featured the first public activation of 12-year-old inventor Billy Schopf's
patent-pending wind-powered generator for automobiles. While Billy's invention
had been shown publicly on previous occasions, it was shown in action for
the first time Friday using simulated wind. Billy's innovation was lauded
last Saturday night by United States Senator Bob Casey as "a leap forward
in green, automotive technology" during the Center's 2010 Science Hall
of Fame Awards last Saturday night.
Joe Brake, vice president and general manager of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of the Lehigh Valley, presented a $20,000 check from the company to complete its original capital pledge begun in 2005.
The Center also received
its first 50-For-50 Campaign Friday from Jim Nallo - a retired businessman,
community leader, and Center trustee - and his wife, Peggy. Their $50,000
contribution was presented through video. The Center also received a $25,000
campaign contribution from Dr. Frank K. Schweighardt, a retired Air Products
executive and the Center's vice chairman, and his wife, Yvonne.
The 50-For-50 Campaign seeks to raise $2.5 million by the end of March 2011 in the form of 50 investment units of $50,000. An individual or company can provide a single unit of $50,000, or groups may combine their investments to create a $50,000 unit. Dr. Schweighardt, for example, is recruiting other individuals to complete his $50,000 unit.
As part of the effort to complete the Center's capital campaign, a $500,000 challenge grant has been issued by The Dexter F. and Dorothy H. Baker Foundation and Bob and Sandy Lovett. The grant will be given when the Center's Board of Trustees contributes a total of $500,000 and the Center raises $2 million from the general public. The Board of Trustees has met its part of the challenge.
The Da Vinci Science Center has challenged its visitors and members to create one $50,000 unit collectively.
Funds raised through the 50-For-50 Campaign will allow the Center to complete payment on its building on Allentown's Hamilton Blvd. Bypass, freeing a large portion of its annual operating budget for programming use. Campaign funds also will be used directly for program development.
The 50-For-50 Campaign was created to build upon the momentum the Da Vinci Science Center has built in the previous 12 months and respond to the deepening needs for the Center's services.
The Center is projected to inspire nearly 90,000 people during its 2010 fiscal year with its exhibits, public programs, community outreach initiatives, and teacher professional development programs - an increase of more than 20 percent from FY2009. Since opening its new home in 2005, the Center also has expanded its reach into the Philadelphia, central Pennsylvania, western New Jersey, and Pocono regions.
Meanwhile, the need to excite and ignite minds of all ages and build the next generation's technical workforce has reached a crisis level throughout the Lehigh Valley, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States, Thrash said. Thrash also said that industries powered by science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are suffering an alarming loss of talent as their workforce ages and shrinks. There is a profound lack of students and educators with strong STEM backgrounds at every grade level, and many talented kids are not exposed to science and the possibilities for work and life that science can provide them, Thrash said.
WIND TURBINE DETAILS
The Da Vinci Science Center is scheduled to install two Worldwide Windkraft
3W 1.4 wind turbines on its roof this summer. The turbines will be donated
by Worldwide Windkraft Corp. - which is headquartered in Beaverton, Ore.,
and has an operation in Allentown, Pa. The 3W 1.4 is a revolutionary rooftop
wind turbine that requires no land use and features one of the industry's
lowest required wind startup speeds and noise levels. On a given day with
an average wind speed just over 11 miles-per-hour, a 3W 1.4 turbine can produce
3.39 kilowatt-hours of energy, or about 34 percent of an average household's
power.
The Da Vinci Science Center's 102-foot-tall wind turbine outside its facility was erected in the fall of 2005 and stands as one of the Lehigh Valley region's architectural landmarks.
BILLY SCHOPF INVENTION
DETAILS
A sixth-grader at Whitehall-Coplay Middle School, Billy Schopf has developed
a patent-pending wind-powered generating system for solar and electric vehicles.
Billy's device features turbine-style blades affixed to the front of a vehicle.
The blades twist uniquely to generate maximum wind power for any electric
car's generator in the same manner that a wind turbine powers a building's
electrical grid. What makes Billy's system an unexpected success is both its
ability to produce electricity during the day and at night and its ability
to generate electricity at any wind speed. What makes Billy's system unique
is its use of a thixotropic fluid to control the angles of the turbine blades
in order to maximize their output.
Billy conceived his invention
while participating in a Saturday morning program for children whose families
hold Da Vinci Science Center membership. With the guidance of Dr. Frank Schweighardt,
Billy was able to file the original provisional patent paperwork and the full
patent application for free. Billy was honored by the Center Saturday night
with its first Science Hall of Fame Young Scientist Award.
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