By Kids For Kids Kicks Off 'Get Your Head in the Game' Maryland Sports Invention Challenge

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Stamford, CT (PRWEB) January 30, 2007 -- By Kids For Kids Co. (BKFK) announced today the official launch of its 2nd annual Maryland invention challenge, "Get Your Head in the Game." This year’s competition will uncover the best new sports or sporting equipment ideas dreamt up by Maryland’s youth. Winners will partake in an exciting awards ceremony in front of a roaring crowd at Camden Yards ballpark this spring. Winners can also expect to see their ideas become reality with the help of kid empowerment company By Kids For Kids.

The competition seeks ideas in the following categories: Aquatic Apparel/Accessories, Boards (water/snow/skate), Cycling, Equipment, Fitness, Ice/Snow/Winter, Off Road, Physical Education, Safety, Table Sports, Track & Field, Training, Weights/Cardio, Water Sports and more.

Entries must be submitted via the By Kids For Kids website at: www.bkfk.com/mdchallenge, no later than April 27, 2007 at 9:00PM EST. There is no entry fee. All kids currently resident in the State of Maryland, ages 5-19 qualify to compete. The judges will look to "marketability" as the determining factor in selecting the winners. "Originality" and "inventiveness" will also be important judging considerations.

Grand Prize winners (up to 10) will receive a $1000 US Savings Bond, a licensing contract from BKFK, patenting (if patentable) for the invention and an all-expenses paid trip to the awards event at Camden Yards. Additionally, winners will be invited to identify the teacher who was most supportive and inspirational to them on their personal inventing journey. That special teacher will be awarded a $500 US Savings bond and also attend the awards event.

Norman Goldstein, Founder and CEO of By Kids For Kids Co., commented: "I encourage all the kids of Maryland to let their imaginations run wild! You can create an entirely new sport, or invent something to make an existing sport better. BKFK will help the winners develop their inventions - and get them out onto the store shelves."

By Kids For Kids has discovered the State of Maryland to be fertile grounds for kid’s creativity. "Get Your Head in the Game" follows last year’s successful "Cool School Tools" competition where kids were challenged to create new school supplies. Furthermore, with the cooperation of the Maryland Board of Education, By Kids For Kids successfully has made the BKFK "Inventive Thinking" program available throughout the Maryland public school and library system. One of last year’s "Cool School Tools" winners, Brenda Santiago, accepted a special congressional award on behalf of By Kids For Kids for the implementation of the Inventive Thinking program.

The BKFK "Inventive Thinking" program, developed in collaboration with the US Patent & Trademark office, is the definitive guide that helps kids tap into their creativity and navigate the often confusing inventing process. The program can be downloaded free of charge from the BKFK website at http://www.bkfk.com

Sponsors of "Get Your Head in the Game," the Maryland sports invention challenge, include: The Baltimore Orioles, The Baltimore Ravens, The Daily Record, Tessco Technologies and Whiteford Taylor & Preston. Companies interested in BKFK sponsorship opportunities should contact Shirley Stone at: (845) 876-2194.

About By Kids For Kids
By Kids For Kids Co., a closely held corporation based in Stamford, Conn., is the leading global marketing, branding and licensing company dedicated to making kids’ ideas a reality. Their mission is to inspire, motivate and stimulate the innovative spirit within all kids. In addition to providing free support and educational resources to America’s children, BKFK provides entrepreneurial experiences for young inventors and supports the entire ideation through commercialization process. By Kids For Kids represents some of the most brilliant young minds in America.

For more information about By Kids For Kids, visit www.bkfk.com

Contact:
John Forrester
+1 (323) 702-3684
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Local inventor's creation shuts door on mice

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Sherlock Holmes wields a large magnifying glass as he bends to examine obscure footprints in the carpet. David Curtis of Lonetown Road follows the same tradition, only he is holding a black light and following the tiny glowing footprints of maraudering field mice.

“It’s CSI for field mice,” he said recently of his new mouse tracking system, RodoTrak. It offers what he calls a baited box with a car-wash effect dousing mice with florescent powder.

He and a neighbor, Henry Emanuel of Lonetown Road, have a new company to market and make the device.Mr. Curtis is a second generation exterminator — Avon Pest Control in Stamford was started by his father in the sixties. “I cover all of Fairfield and Weschester counties. I have eight guys out doing general pest control services... Our job is to get it out or keep it out,” he said.

As the warm temperatures dip and frost rises, a lot of mice and other small creatures are headed indoors where everything is warm.
“We get the calls, rodents in house, droppings in the drawers, noises in the walls. We get a lot of noises in the wall... That’s kind of how this started,” he said.

Mr. Emanuel asked if there was a way to keep the mice out rather than killing them inside his house. “He said that maybe we could track them and see how they are getting in. Originally, we just looked for holes and plugged them,” Mr. Curtis said.

Mr. Emanuel is in the carpet business and uses fluorescent material for color enhancement. “I have a fluorescent material — maybe we can see how they are coming in,” he told Mr. Curtis. “His question was how we could get it on the mice. I had to build some kind of encapsulating trap so the rodents would actually treat themselves,” he said.

He experimented with different forms of the fluorescent, which comes in various liquids and powder forms, and with different container shapes and types of fibers for the mechanism. “I had to make a lot of changes to make it work,” Mr. Curtis said

The result is patent pending — a tunnel-like box is baited and filled with synthetic fibers bearing the fluorescent material.

“It coats their fur as well as their feet. Once they leave, we can track where they are getting in and out. The trails tell you everything you want to know about how these mice are using the structure...,” he said. The trails are revealed using a hand-held black light.

According to the company’s press release, RodoTrak uses non-poisonous baited “rodent detection stations” loaded with non-toxic fluorescent powder.

The fibrous material contains enough powder to cover approximately 15 linear feet outside and even more inside. Once they leave the detection and tracking station, the rodents create a trail of powder left as footprints where they walk or “body” prints where they rub against an entry (or exit) point The stations are set up in a maze-like pattern to locate and pinpoint rodent activity.

“In one case, a homeowner was absolutely convinced that mice were entering around a door. The door had been tightened several times and it moldings replaced, all to no avail. We set up three RodoTrak stations and tracked their path to a hole beneath the building’s siding, and did it within 24 hours!” Mr. Curtis said.

One local man, Gino Marsili of the Village Chef, has used the system in his residence and is very pleased with it. “In my house we had the classic signs of mice... you could hear them or see the droppings.” Mr. Marsili is something of a do-it-yourselfer.

“You have a black light and you start at the RodoTrak and you can follow their foot prints in the florescent dust,” he said. “In one situation at my house, there was a hole the size of a quarter about five feet off the ground. They were climbing all the way up there to that hole. I didn’t know I had a hole in my foundation but you can see their footprints,” he said.

His foundation is old stone, and he was able to fill the places where the old cement was crumbed away.

“I am 100% satisfied” Mr. Marsili said.

For more information, visit the company’s Web site at http://www.rodotrak.com.
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