#543, Club Bulletin, February 2, 2015
Posted
on Jan 27, 2015
Program for February 2, 2015: Muscatine Convention and Visitors Bureau - Nick Cusick
Invocation: Bob Allbee
Rotary Update: Tony asked for a moment of silence in honor of Norm Smith. Mike Ruby is happy he will be skiing with his Rotarian skiers!! Diana Gradert is pleased that Eagles and Ivories was very good this year. A special note that the contribution to the Community Foundation on our Rotary invoices is under the Special Projects Category. Keith Porter was happy that the first evening Rotary Meeting was very successful at Kent Corp... with delicious food and some new faces of members who were able to attend in the evening!! The next evening meeting is February 26, 2015 at First National Bank!! Tim Nelson and Bob DeKock received Paul Harris recognition at the January 22 evening meeting!! Paul Fitzpatrick attended with plans to join our club!!
Program: Dan Nietzel, Chris Anderson, Brian Wilson and Joel Kraushaar presented their new Muscatine based product and company...the Sleeve and Fighting Chance Solutions!! The product was developed, staged and the company was formed all in the past 6 months. The sleeve impedes the intrusion of an active shooter in a building by covering the door closure. Training in schools for active shooters is done to protect the students and the teachers in a school or building where a shooting could occur. The Sleeve went through 15 prototypes and the final product was tested at Muscatine Community College. A press conference was held to share the availability of the product which went viral immediately and cast the new entrepreneurs and their product into the limelight. As it happened there was an active shooter story the same day as the press conference and the two stories were linked by local ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates across the country. Immediately calls were received from interested investors and potential customers. Muscatine Community College, Eastern Iowa Community College and the Muscatine Community School District are all working to include the purchase of the Sleeve to better secure their facilities. The company is Muscatine bases and is located at 215 E. 2nd street. The product is made by Fabricators Plus which is owned by Doug Buster. A special hanger has been made to place the sleeve on a door without the need of a ladder or other tool. It takes 90 seconds to make a Sleeve. The company does the door measuring with a special tool which uses a cell phone camera to take a picture of the door and send the exact measurements to Fighting Chance Solutions. Fighting Chance is an internet based company. Individual sleeves retail for $85. The product is in 40 states on military bases, in churches, schools and corporate headquarters!! Kudos to these great entrepreneurial minds!!