Young Spring Valley Inventor Is Honored

A Spring Valley boy who designed a “Speedee-Seeder” to help his father with the gardening was one of nine young inventors honored Thursday by the Department of Commerce.

Secretary of Commerce Barbara H. Franklin gave awards to Brian Howell, a Spring Valley first-grader, and eight other young people who won a national Invent America! competition. Each was given a $1,000 U.S. Savings Bond.

Other winners:

* Samantha Winter of Chandler, Ariz., kindergarten, designed a walking cane for her great-grandmother that features space for a whistle, a map, quarters, medicine and keys.

* Erica Gorochow of Potomac, Md., second grade, who invented “Hot Sippers,” straws that cool liquids so they don’t burn the mouths of bedridden hospital patients.

* Daniel Buckley of Wall, N.J., third grade, who came up with “The Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder,” with windows that close when a squirrel jumps on it.

* Aaron Lademan of Columbia, Mo., fourth-grade, inventor of “The Blaze Buster,” an alarm that goes off when a wood-burning stove gets too hot.

* Joe Dolan of West Seneca, N.Y., fifth grade, who created a child-proof “Safety Lighter.”

* Brandon Joy of Artesia, N.M., sixth grade, for “BJ’s Hole System,” a below-ground hose and faucet system.

* Jenny Kraschnewski of Burlington, Wis., seventh grade, who invented “Leaf Log and Manufacture,” a system to make logs for the fire out of shredded leaves.

* Jason Sanders of Vinton, Iowa, eighth grade, for his “Lateral Elevated Grain System,” a new way to recycle chicken feeders.

Invent America!, a nonprofit program that sponsors creative problem solving, is administered by the nonprofit U.S. Patent Model Foundation.