Fast forward a few years and the system was built. There are two towers holding four solar panels, and a large tactical gear box that holds the batteries and all the electronics and switching. A friend helped with the fabrication of parts too complex for my skillset, and it turned out just fantastic in every way. The system is portable and efficient. I couldn’t wait to take it back to the Burn. I was living in Denver at the time and my neighborhood threw a street party. My housemate’s daughter convinced me to take the system and make smoothies with it. We did it and it was a huge hit. Everyone loved having an option to booze, and the more curious were really intrigued by a solar system that I could pull around on a little wagon. Someone from the Maker Movement was there, and was impressed enough to invite me to exhibit the system at the first annual Colorado Maker Fair in Denver.
I exhibited at the Fair and the system was a huge hit. I had a lot of interest and a lot of people asking for a price and a delivery date ! ha ha By this time I had the smoothies perfected and served a few hundred people. Super fun. A guy I worked with asked me if I would be willing to do the same setup at his children’s school. And so I did my first school presentation, at a charter school that specialized in environmental problem solving. The 5th and 6th graders were the perfect age to talk to, and they soaked up everything about the system and how I had built it to solve a problem in an environmentally-conscious manner. And they loved making the smoothies !
By now I had put together a whole shade structure setup with tables and menus and multiple coolers and an industrial blender that could pulverize ice and frozen fruit in seconds. I was ready for the Burn. I hauled the whole setup out there, bought 500 dollars worth of supplies in Reno and got to the event. Each morning we served delicious chocolate and strawberry smoothies for two hours. The first day was mellow. The second day people were standing in line by the time we got going. The third day people came to my tent and woke me up to get going ! Lots of people – what a circus. We did it for 5 days until all our supplies were gone.
The folks at Burning Man tend to be intelligent and self-reliant, and the mobile system was of great interest. Most people only see a solar system on the roof of a house, and the equipment is buried in the basement somewhere. To be able to see everything right in front of you, touch it, see a schematic that shows every part and how they all relate to each other – it made it all so much more real.
Back home in Telluride I told the story to my landlord’s daughter, who immediately began a campaign to get me to bring it to her classroom at the Telluride Intermediate School. That spring I did indeed visit her 4th grade class, presenting a talk with slides called ‘From Tesla to Tesla’. They were doing a unit on inventors and inventions, and I tailored my presentation to complement their work. I started with Nikola Tesla and his ties to Telluride and ended with Elon Musk and his now-famous Tesla electric cars. The next day we set up the system outside and had a blast making smoothies, hula hooping and being silly.
The response was so great that we added a day at Ridgway State Park, and expanded to 5th and 6th grade. A local solar power company and the State Park folks also did presentations on alternative power and ecology. By this time I had things pretty well figured out so it was a smooth operation. I also added a sound system and made a special playlist to encourage dancing and hula hooping.
Word spread and people complained that their kids were missing out due to being too young or just not in the right grade for that year. And so with the blessing of the school system, I set up at Field Day, the last day of the Telluride school year. This is in order to accommodate more kids. The first time we got all the 4th, 5th and 6th graders. The second year we got the little kids too, and had the whole Telluride School System, 1st through 6th grade. Almost 500 kids. Just incredible. We danced and hula hooped and jumped on the mini tramp and drank smoothies all day. A triumph for Telluride, for all of us.
Subsequent years have seen me teaching classes on alternative energy, sustainibility, and science. Our area is fortunate to have numerous STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program opportunities. I have done programs for Telluride School, Oak Grove School, Cottonwood School, the Girl Scouts, and Grace Church Summer School. I have also been a repeat presenter at the Montrose Natural Resource fair for 4th graders. What started as a novelty at a block party has grown into a fill size community outreach endeavor.
I’ve always thought that listening to a talk is hard if that’s all there is. Reading is great but it’s a lonely endeavor. If you can combine a talk with some reading and visual aids you might get further. But it’s when you add touch that things really take off. If a kid can touch the hardware that they are learning about, it’s so much more real. If they can flip switches and aim the solar panels at the sun, watch the meter spike when a heavy load is applied, see the charge boost when the sun comes out from behind a cloud – these tangible connections to the idea of power production put them in a highly engaged state of mind. And of course, as much as touch intensifies learning, I’ve always said that ultimate satisfaction is if you can eat what you made !
All of the ingredients I use are organic. The smoothies are made from scratch. We can accommodate people with dietary restrictions so that everyone gets a smoothie. The setup and all its parts are very high tech and sanitary conditions are maintained at all times. I take health very seriously and have had nothing but positive feedback.
My day job is building custom houses for people in Telluride and the surrounding area, so I have a regular income. I do ask for the cost of my raw materials to be reimbursed. For the big groups it usually works out to about a buck a kid. Pretty reasonable I think. I don’t have kids of my own so I figure doing this is my contribution to the village. It’s time and effort I’m happy to give.
The power system and smoothie stand is a side project, a hobby of sorts. I love making things, teaching others, sharing knowledge, cultivating skills. I’ve always spent a lot of time with kids, either working through formal programs such as KATS and One to One, or on my own building a solar-powered treehouse for neighborhood kids and scale models of skyscrapers out of Legos . I believe that as important as it is to have educational programs for older kids to work at practical tasks, it is just as important (or more) to inculcate the love of learning and making in young kids. I’ve seen early elementary children who have a burning desire to explore their world, given any kind of reasonable opportunity. My hope is to foster this in whatever way I can and along the way to show that science, building and eco-consciousness are cool and fun. I’m excited to share my setup with classes in and around Telluride, Ridgway and Montrose.
