Congratulations to all on a successful Taste of Hops & Vines on August 27!!!
The details will be in soon – but a good time was had by all!
We added some new attractions:
Gift Card Trees – $20 gets you a gift card from $35 to $70! WE SOLD OUT
The School of Rock – high school age students played for an hour. A bit loud – but many thought a great addition (and some did not appreciate the change).
Today's speaker was Paul Krueger, President/CEO of Make-A-Wish Minnesota. He was accompanied by Sarah Kasner, a Minneapolis parent of two children who have been granted wishes. The mission of Make-A-Wish is to create life-changing wishes for children with critical illness. Research shows that wishes can give kids the strength to fight against, and even overcome, a critical illness. Their detailed eligibility criteria specify that a child must be diagnosed with a critical illness, not necessarily a terminal condition. While Make-A-Wish is a national organization, our Minnesota chapter is one of the top Minnesota children's charities, with a staff of 20 and a core of about 450 dedicated volunteers. Currently about 250 wishes are granted annually in MN. But 300 children are waiting. The cost of a wish is about $12,000 on average. It was very meaningful to hear from Sarah Kasner. She and her husband have 4 children, the youngest two of which were born with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy and became wheel-chair bound by the age of 9. The older of the two wished for a gaming room within their home and the younger wished for a trip to Disney. Both were extremely well done and very meaningful for this family. Doctors are involved in determining a child's eligibility and also helping judge the specific fitness of a child's wish, given their medical situation. Doctors agree that a gift often helps provide trauma relief, strength to fight and help with emotional well-being. "Hope Changes Everything!"
Today's speaker was our very own Anoop Mathur who gave us an overview of his professional career in the area of energy storage and the exciting work he is currently doing through his company Terrafore Technologies. Prior to starting this development company, Anoop had a long career at Honeywell, Inc. working in the field of solar energy storage. Terrafore is developing the technology to enable thermal energy storage for use in concentrating solar thermal power as well as fossil and nuclear power and other industrial processes. Between 2000 and 2025, America's electricity demands were fairly constant. Energy efficient appliances, etc. helped balance out other growth. But now the needs for electricity are growing rapidly due to the need for large data centers, power for electric vehicles and other changes. The Department of Energy is very interested in the company's designs for a 1,000 megawatt thermal battery which can capture and store enough solar energy to power about 10,000 homes a day. Storage does not create energy but it makes it available at the right time, which is where nearly all the value is. Thank you Anoop, for this fascinating presentation!
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