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Holland entrepreneur Charles Elwood has used his ingenuity and skills to organize the making of Personal Protective Equipment on machines such as 3D printers.
In addition to our weekly newsletter, we have launched a monthly Lakeshore newsletter curated by guest editors. For December, we invited Charles Elwood, to bring his perspective to the work we do at The Lakeshore.
For those of you who haven't met Charles yet, he wears many hats. He’s a business owner, data consultant, Holland Museum board member, Rotary Club member, STEM education volunteer, YouTuber, and parent. And he recently added ArtPrize artist to his growing list of accomplishments. His groundbreaking 2021 ArtPrize entry, The ABBy Project merged art with technology.
As you can imagine he's been featured a few times in our publication for a few of the ways he's making a difference along the Lakeshore. We interviewed the busy entrepreneur about his volunteer work with like-minded problem-solvers to produce personal protection equipment for frontline workers.
We salute the dedication of Charles for this innovative approach to problem-solving. In this special edition of The Lakeshore, he highlights others who are overcoming their fears to accomplish amazing things.
My name is Charles Elwood. I'm the founder of a company called SolisMatica. My claim to fame is I recently began working on a project with professors at Hope College to test wastewater for COVID genetic markers. It’s a really, really cool project, and I help them visualize the data in dashboards.
The Lakeshore West Michigan magazine asked me to pick articles on a theme I was passionate about. I chose a theme kind of new to them: How do people address their fears? Moreover, how do people take on their fears and take concrete action to overcome them and do amazing things? I'm over 40 now, and I discovered fear has been holding me back from realizing my true potential. I started looking for news and data and sources with uplifting stories and stories of how other people overcame their own fears.
Interestingly, I discovered there are few online magazines out there that actually talk about inspirational stories, people creating solutions, people overcoming their fears, people doing something great.
That's when I discovered the Lakeshore West Michigan online magazine.
I picked eight articles that deal with overcoming fears and/or limitations and doing something astounding. Enjoy these curated stories. After I learned to overcome my fears, I’ve had a tremendous journey for the past three or four years, and I want others to do the same. I also want them to find a news source like The Lakeshore that really promotes inspirational stories.
My favorite inspirational stories
GRCC's new Veterans Center helping students transition from the military to college
Three new superintendents talk about priorities, challenges ahead
Be Better Mental Wellness Center draws inspiration from champion Holland swimmer
'It's never too late,' says GRCC student who turned her life around
Spotlight story:
Revolin Sports' co-founders are making pickleball sustainable
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Hugh Davis, CEO and co-founder of Revolin Sports, and Sophie Vanden Bosch, the co-founder and chief marketing officer of Revolin Sports.
Spera Foods founder building 'hopeful' health brand
Kavy Lenon is an advocate for her community on and off the job
Teachers play prominent role in judge's journey from migrant work to court bench
'Short-lived hobby' turns into a Rotary Project to provide PPE to fight pandemic
Call to action
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Charles Elwood
I described myself as an adventurer. By that, I mean that I take new technology and find new creative ways to apply that technology to educate our future generations, and also to improve people's lives. This is a photo of me with The ABBy Project.
Right now, I am working on 3 main projects where I need help :
Project 1: Edge Intelligence Customized Sign Language Interpreter for children with Special Needs
Project 2: Building a Bridge between Ballet and Artificial Intelligence- My ArtPrize Project
Project 3: 3D Printers for Pine Ridge Reservation
If you would like to support these efforts, you can learn more
here.
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