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Desination: DelawareQuestion: What does an 86 year-old Wilmington, Delaware man have in common with a bunch of inner-city kids in Minneapolis? Minneapolis, MN: (Park Avenue Foundation press release) This week, Steve Birth, of Minneapolis, will be driving his car and hauling a trailer to pick up a special cargo from an 86 year-old Wilmington, Delaware man named Irving (last name held upon request). Mr. Birth is the founder of an inner-city youth program called “The Tronix Team.” It was Steve’s vision to stimulate inner-city kids’ interest in technology, so he developed a program where kids learn how to turn their lunchboxes into MP3-playing boomboxes. So far 60 kids have built a Lunchbox Boombox in the Tronix Team program. It takes four 90-minute sessions to build each boombox, which includes an MP3 player, speaker and a circuit board. The students each build their own boombox from scratch using diagrams developed by Birth. When all the drilling and soldering is done, the kids get to connect their lunchboxes to a computer and download their favorite music. Not only do kids get hands-on experience with electronics but they are also exposed to real-world jobs and industries through field trips to colleges and industrial companies. So, you are probably asking yourselves, how does this relate to Irving of Wilmington? It just so happens Irving’s hobby since 2001 has been collecting lunchboxes - 686 of them to be exact! Now that he’s retired and living in a small apartment, he no longer has space for his collection. As a result, Irving came to the decision to sell his collection on eBay. That’s where Steve Birth discovered the “mother load” of lunchboxes! Steve put in the winning bid on behalf of the Park Avenue Foundation of Minneapolis to purchase Irving’s collection and bring them to the kids in Minneapolis. Steve Birth and a representative of the Park Avenue Foundation will be available to the press when he leaves for Wilmington at 9:00 a.m. March 8th from the parking lot of the Park Avenue United Methodist Church (PAUMC) at 3400 Park Avenue S. in Minneapolis. Steve will be arriving at Irving’s apartment at 11:00 a.m. March 10th and returning to Minneapolis on March 12th at 6:15 p.m. at the PAUMC parking lot and will be available to the press at that time as he and the kids unload the trailer. NEWS UPDATE: Mission accomplished...Steve and his brother Harvey made it home safely and on schedule. They pulled into the church parking lot to a throng of kids cheering their arrival, anxious to see his haul. The lunchboxes are now safely tucked away in Steve's church office. In fact, they fill his office. Tronix Team looks forward to their conversion into boom boxes as do hundreds of kids in the South Minneapolis area.
Hear clip of radio interview here Learn more about our Lunchbox Boombox project
Steve Birth's cell phone 612-581-2819 3/7/06; 10:08 AM |
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