Kristin Hrabar
Featured Young Inventor
When
Kristin Ann Hrabar was just nine years old, she had a simple
idea for a device that solved a common problem. Her father asked
her to hold a flashlight over a tight space he was working in
while he fixed a household item with a screwdriver. She thought
this would have been a lot easier for both of them if the tool
had a light source of its own. That's when she began working on
the illuminated nut driver, which she turned into a successful
project for her third grade science fair.
Kristin took her invention to the U.S. Patent Office, which
awarded her a United States Utility Patent (Patent #5,628,556 )
by her eleventh birthday.
Kristin has appeared on The Sally Jessy Raphael Show, and on
radio programs. In 2000, she was recognized as a "Walt Disney
and McDonald's Millennium Dreamer" ambassador to the world,
participating in a three-day trip to Walt Disney World where all
selected 'ambassadors' from around the world gathered for a
World Children's Summit.
She was later invited to attend the Millennium White House Tour
in Washington, DC, where she met then First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
In 2002, Kristin participated in a television show called the
'Inventors' Showdown,' taped in Las Vegas and aired on Discovery
Channel in June of that year. She placed second, and was
subsequently named 'Young Entrepreneur of the Year' by
Partnership for America's Future,' based in Akron, Ohio.
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