Empire Drift was presented with an official Toledo City Council resolution on May 27, declaring “A Good Place to Call Home” the official song of Toledo for one year.
The band was present during the voting of the resolution and gave the city council a rare in-chamber acoustic performance.

Empire Drift

“Everyone really seemed to like it. The only way to describe it is that everyone was really positive and supporting and it was a relaxing atmosphere,” said guitarist Rick Shugarman. “It was an honor to play in front of our local representatives.”
The Toledo Free Press/FOX Toledo “Song of Toledo” contest winner was named May 20.
On May 21, Empire Drift played its winning song for Rep. Marcy Kaptur and Barack Obama’s “Auto Czar,” Ed Montgomery.
Upon hearing the song, with its shout-out to her, Kaptur said, “I’ve listened to the song twice and now I’m singing along with Empire Drift. I’m honored to be included in their bouncy score, which aptly describes our community as a wonderful place to live. Again, the arts lift us and speak for us.”
The group will perform its Toledo anthem for the Lucas County Commissioners on June 2 and will be awarded a proclamation. Empire Drift will celebrate its win with a performance on June 5 at The Blarney Irish Pub.
“A Good Place To Call Home” can be heard here.

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Other “Song of Toledo” contest entries are receiving exposure for their work.
Contest contender and former “American Idol” semifinalist Candice Coleman has received national attention since the contest due to her participation in the 2009 All-America City Awards.
Coleman will travel to the conference in Tampa, Fla., on June 17, along with city representatives to take part in the official presentation on behalf of Toledo.
The Idol alum is scheduled to perform the “Song of Toledo” contest submission “Black Swamp Heartland” during the presentation, with fellow local musician Matt “Dirt” Sayers, who wrote the song, according to presentation co-director Robert Russ.
Coleman will bring the presentation to life, Russ said, highlighting key city programs with an aim of “trying to make our hometown of Toledo a better place.”
Coleman said she is honored by her participation in the program.
“Toledo should be very proud that we’re being nominated because it really is prestigious,” she said, “I’m really proud to be a part of it.”
“The presentation covers our Neighborhood Block Watch, Toledo GROWs, and CAPA City, a program that is federally, locally and privately funded, which is basically an anti-drug coalition.”
The contest participation is at no cost to the city and has been paid for through fundraising, Russ said.
2009 will mark the 60th anniversary of the All-America City Awards, presented by the National Civic League. Only cities that have won the All American City Award in the past are allowed to enter the contest in 2009 — a total of 32 cities are participating this year.
The winners will be announced on June 20.
Russ plans to bring Coleman’s performance to the Toledo stage after the conference.
“I’d like to make a special presentation at One SeaGate for those who helped,” he said.
Copies of a compilation 45-song, two-CD set, compiled by Toledo Free Press, are available for check out at the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library.
In addition to the five finalists — Empire Drift, Highbinders, Purpose, Wanna Bees and Kyle White — and People’s Choice winner Buck69, this compilation includes recordings by local artists, such as Coleman, Eddie Boggs and Ragtime Rick.
For information, call the library at (419) 259-5285.

TO THE EDITOR,
The May 24 Toledo Free Press included an article written by “Get Fit, Toledo” columnist Lauren Amstutz, “Local teen pregnancy rates alarming.”
The first part of the article related to the plight of a teenager in respecting the value of life, made a decision to carry her baby full-term facing the challenges of young motherhood.
The second part of the story included extensive commentary from the Lisa Perks, CEO of the local Planned Parenthood, strong pro-choice advocates.
The surprise was that nowhere were there any comments from a pro-life organization, such as the Pregnancy Center of Greater Toledo, which in addition to assisting pregnant women in need of services at no cost, provides an abstinence program that is welcomed in many of Northwest Ohio’s grade, middle and high schools.
To say, as the CEO indicated, that “teaching an abstinence-based curriculum isn’t effective because it doesn’t prepare students for the real world” does not address the many, many positive comments and comitments from past participants of the literally hundreds of programs provided by the center throughout the area.
Many participants have responded with a great sense of gratitude as a result of hearing the message of abstinence instead of just the “protection” message in itself. Not all programs are totally successful, as evidenced by the teenager interviewed in the article. But to say that abstinence isn’t effective ignores the maturity of many of today’s young people who are open to the very safest pregnancy prevention available.

JOHN MIZEREK, Board President,
Pregnancy Center of Greater Toledo

All parents have one thing in common: The need to provide for financial support of the family in the event of an untimely death.
Parenthood is joyous and many of us revel daily in the miracles that are our children.  For this reason, there is an understandable discomfort in having to imagine what would happen if our children lost one, or both, parents at any particular moment, but this must be done to plan for proper life insurance protection.
Beyond the need for funeral costs and final expenses; determining life insurance needs is dependent upon preparing for various possibilities that, although frightening, could become reality. So how exactly do you go about determining your life insurance needs?
There are basic daily living expenses that would need to be provided for regardless of any situations, such as food, clothing and shelter. First, determine the ongoing expenses and assign their estimated dollar value.    Beyond these basic needs, decide the lifestyle you want to provide those left behind. Some of the items to keep in mind are:
•    Debt (credit cards, car loans, personal loans)
•    Educational expenses (private schooling, higher education)
•    Life events (marriage, first cars, graduation)
•    Extracurricular activities (hobbies, sports, clubs)
The next step is to determine what income sources will be available after your death. Such sources may include survivor pensions, Social Security survivorship benefits and surviving spouses’ projected income from work. Know exactly when and how income sources would pay because some, such as Social Security, will vanish when children reach certain ages.
With your estimated expenses and income giving you a preliminary idea of the anticipated financial shortfall (the amount by which the expenses exceed the income), you have an idea of the amount of insurance needed and for how long to tailor a life insurance program for your family.
Life insurance falls into two basic definitions:
•    Term insurance: The cheapest to buy, it provides a death benefit with guaranteed level premiums for a designated number of years, typically 10 to 30 years.
•    Permanent insurance: Also know as Whole Life (WL), Universal Life (UL) or Variable life (VL). These cost more than term, but do not expire in a designated number of years and as long as the policy premium is paid, the insurance remains in force. With UL and VL, ensure you understand what estimates are used with the non-guaranteed returns and that the estimates are realistic, if depending on the non-guaranteed performance to keep your policy in force long term.
While a portion of your insurance need may be permanent in nature, a large portion can be a temporary need to provide for the expenses of raising and providing for children in a 20- to 25-year window. By defining your temporary need, you can purchase this portion in term insurance at the lower cost.
Lastly, remember you do not need to do all of this alone. A licensed insurance agent can prove valuable in planning — assisting with defining the amount of insurance you need and with how to fund that need whether with term, permanent or a combination of both. Purchasing online might seem economical, but you may wish to use a local professional who can meet in person, not only when initially purchasing your policy, but also in subsequent years to assess your changing needs.

Alexander H. Due is executive vice president of the employee benefits division at Roemer Insurance.

Thirty years ago, SugarHill Gang made history when its song, “Rapper’s Delight,” became the first hip-hop song to become a Top 40 hit. This success gave birth to the hip-hop genre of music and, for the first time in history, there are adults all over the world who have grown up listening to hip-hop music.
How many times have you heard your parents say, “I don’t know how you can listen to that!” and thought the same with regards to your parents’ era of music? Do you still listen to the music enjoyed during your formative years?
Can you believe that the time is near when Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and LL Cool J will all be considered “oldies?” For some who didn’t grow up to these beats, it seems ludicrous that these artists are even considered a viable music preference, yet, comparatively, the same was said 30 years ago about KISS, Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead.
Is there really a “best” type of music or is it all a matter of personal preference? The truth lies not in the preferences themselves, but in how these preferences came to exist in the first place. It is natural for people to latch onto the music of their day and immediately (and sincerely) discount the preference of others.
As they develop, individuals experience periods of intellectual and emotional growth.  Individuals cling to more than the music they grew up with — they also hang onto the values, work ethics, prejudices and principles they learned within that time.
Much like your favorite music, implementing values, work ethic, prejudices and principles into one’s life is a choice. There will come a time though, especially if you are trying to improve your private life, when you will need to reflect upon those core components and ask if they are helping or hurting your situation. During such reflection, you may be surprised to find that, as hard as you may have tried to leave behind the life you once lived, you are still listening to the same music, using the same tools and thinking the same thought patterns that made you think you were invincible as a child.
Some of the thoughts that are locked into your head from those developmental years may include conflicting feelings about money. Do you feel that you can make money easily, or do you feel that making money is hard?  Do you feel that you have all of the resources you need or are you that person who is always begging/borrowing/stealing? Most importantly, do you feel you deserve to live a happy and successful life?
The answers to those and other questions may be different than the ones that are locked inside your head — the thoughts that were formed when you first developed your taste for music.
There are many ways to change your thoughts. All of them are simple, yet none of them are easy to accomplish. Think of your mind as a game of Operation as you focus upon keeping the good thoughts in, while trying not to get zapped by the negativity of the old thoughts. Identify the thoughts you want to think: Do you want to find new customers every day? Do you want to recruit the best employees in the market? Do you want to be able to deliver a strong speech in front of an intimidating crowd? Write them out as if they are already fact.
Take your affirmations with you, privately, everywhere you go. Look at them often, repeat them aloud to yourself in the mirror and feel great about what you’re telling yourself. As time passes, and it will take time, you’ll begin to develop a taste for new music — the sweet music of personal success.

For more ways to change your thoughts go to www.boltfromtheblue.com and enter the word SUGAR into the blueprint box.
Tom Richard is a Toledo-based sales and marketing consultant, keynote speaker, and owner of Bolt from the Blue direct response advertising. For more information, visit www.boltfromtheblue.com or call (419) 441-1005.

On “Super Hero,” the title track from her new disc, Candye Kane belts out the opening line: “I’ve always been a fighter when bad times come around.”
She ain’t kidding.
The singer-songwriter survived growing up with a mom who taught her how to shoplift. She escaped an abusive boyfriend. And last year she had surgery for pancreatic cancer; the Whipple procedure removed part of her stomach and bile duct, gall bladder and a segment of the small intestine.
“I had 150 stitches and I was very weak and I could hardly talk, much less sing,” she said during a phone interview from her Oceanside, Calif., home. “The only thing I could do was strum my guitar, and I felt like maybe the vibration from the guitar would be healing on my incision. ‘Super Hero’ was the first song I wrote when I was healing from that surgery.

Candye Kane

“I didn’t want ‘Super Hero’ to be a song just about the healing or surgery or the super hero capacity of the body; I wanted it to be a song that shows how women are superheroes anyway in our life. There’s a line about ‘You can always count on me/ Save your kitten from a tree/ Do it all and still have time to make dinner/ I’m a super hero.’ Because I feel like yes, men believe they’re the stronger ones and, physically, most men are. Emotionally, women are the real torchbearers and foundations of the world.”
The blues singer with the big voice The Washington Post described as “a natural wonder like the Grand Canyon” will show off her powerful pipes when she stops at The Ark in Ann Arbor for a 7:30 p.m. show June 7. Tickets are $15. Doors open at 7 p.m.
“I truly believe that me getting up on the bandstand singing ‘Toughest Girl Alive’ or ‘Super Hero’ sinks in. I sing it and it sinks into my psyche and it sinks into the audience, too. Words are so powerful, and I feel that so I use it to heal myself,” Kane said. “I have this gift of being able to sing and communicate what I’ve been through to others, and hopefully it can heal them and help them when they have struggles.”
A single mom at 17, Kane was a country singer in the 1980s.
“I sang hillbilly music in punk rock Hollywood for years and years. In those days, being an adult entertainer who also sang hillbilly music was pretty radical,” she said. “When many of my stripping sisters were dancing to Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love to You Baby’ or ‘Let’s Get It On’ by Marvin Gaye, I was stripping to old-timey blues like Joe Liggins or Lucille Bogan. Once I started discovering blues, it really spoke to me.”
She hopes her days of yore don’t stop anyone from coming to the concert.
“I think people stay away sometimes; they’re afraid, they look on the Internet and they hear things about me, that I was an adult entertainer, and they misunderstand what the show’s about,” Kane said. “The show is really empowering … Everybody has that strength inside them, the strength to overcome whatever dirty hand we’ve been dealt by fate … We alone have that power to change our lives, and that’s what I want people to come away with from my show.”

On the Web: visit www.candyekane.com and click on links for more informaiton.

A collective of musicians are paying tribute to the life and work of Fujiya “Fuji” Kawashima, Ph.D. Kawashima was an Asian Studies professor from BGSU who died from acute leukemia in 2006.
The memorial concert is to benefit the creation and dedication of a Japanese peace garden in Kawashima’s honor in Simpson Garden Park in Bowling Green. It will take place at 7:30 p.m. June 5 at the Kobacker Hall of the Moore Musical Arts Center.
The half-acre garden, designed by Mark J. Cyr, a designer of Japanese gardens, will feature a tranquil setting with a waterfall, flowering trees and shrubs, as well as calming ponds, to achieve a sense of tranquility and inner peace, according to Teri Sharp of the Bowling Green City Parks and Recreation Department.
Sharp said Kawashima’s contributions to the community have had a lasting impact on Bowling Green and Northwest Ohio. As a Japanese native, Kawashima used his connections in Asia to strengthen ties in the United States and was instrumental in establishing the Asian Studies Program at BGSU. Around the time of his death in 2006 at age 67, Kawashima was working toward establishing a Peace Studies Program for the university.
“Fuji was extremely important to relations between Japan and Northwest Ohio because he encouraged businesses from Japan to develop here,” Sharp said.
Among the scheduled performers June 5 are vocalists Shawn Mathey and Sujin Lee, and internationally known pianists Jason Hardink and Kimi Kawashima, Kawashima’s surviving daughter.
She began her career as a pianist at the age of 14 with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and has since continued to pursue music professionally. She has most recently concluded a string of performances with the Utah Symphony, as well as a Schubert program, alongside her husband and fellow pianist Jason Hardink for the NOVA Chamber Music Series.
Kawashima continues her father’s legacy for scholarly growth and is continuing to pursue a doctorate of musical arts for piano performance at the Shepherd School.
Mathey, a Bowling Green native and son of BGSU faculty member Richard Mathey, has recently returned from vocal performances in Europe. Mathey often performs alongside wife and fellow vocalist Sujin Lee, a South Korean native, who has appeared in various operas across America and Europe.
Tickets for the concert are $25 and are available at Grounds for Thought: Calico, Sage and Thyme, 115 Clay St. and the Bowling Green Community Center, 1245 W. Newton Road. Any remaining tickets will be available for purchase at the door on the day of the event at 6:30 p.m.
Tickets can also be ordered by mail from the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Foundation, 1291 Conneaut Ave., Bowling Green, OH 43402.
For information on this event and others, contact the Bowling Green City Parks and Recreation Department at (419) 354-6223.

Spring has sprung and gardens are growing in media as well as Mother Earth. Check out these quality skill building games for natural fun!

Rune Factory: Frontier

This Wii exclusive “Harvest Moon Fantasy” game has free roaming fun and multitasking challenges. The strong graphics have a nice artistic style while the physical and aesthetic properties of natural elements like water enhance the game to a high level. As the game’s helpful hero, Raguna, you usually don’t get a chance to choose tasks within the storyline. Some arbitrary events where you collect items and bonuses may not be logical, but they bring some nice unpredictability. This game still has immense free roaming and multitasking activities including cooking, exploration, farming (especially tiling areas), fishing, gathering food, watering plants and even fighting. Other actions include town/homestead expansions, picking fruit, performing magic, trying out recipes and smashing rocks for mineral ore. More interaction in the house would be great for the next installment, though, as in past installments, the townspeople can still expand your home with forge, barn or kitchen for a price.

As you use your various tools including a pet brush, sickle, ax and watering can to produce, maintain and eventually sell items. You can purchase needed items like weapons, seeds and special tools, though some are limited to special times or triggered events. It’s fun to eat while you work in the fields growing a wide array of edibles. One big time waster, especially in this genre, is time spent wandering around. Thankfully the buildings are close together and navigation is quick. Initially the detailed graphics can be overwhelming, so you get the sense that you could get lost very quickly. Time stops when accessing menus or going inside buildings and you get three save slots to save progress. A great game with great execution and relational role-playing where you choose how you spend your days and nights (***1/2, rated E10+ for fantasy violence, mild language, suggestive themes and alcohol use).

Bonsai Barber

A wonderfully humorous Wii Ware game where you cut, shape and style various vegetable character tops to their liking. The short format where you set certain appointments for each day keeps the game from going long and keeps it…fresh. The game incorporate several elements together flawlessly and include special gifts, awards, postcards or email alerts when you miss appointments. You can also send photographs to friends and catch special events for bonus items and some special powers. Create several styles using scissors, clippers, a comb, water spray bottle and paint for 12 customers, which have their own unique storyline. Characters give you helpful prompts and hints throughout each session. This game even includes a cooperative multiplayer mode so everyone can get into the game. A great value for the Wii Points with high production work, dynamic music, pleasant sound effects and smooth controls that rotate objects well put this title in the essential Wii game library (****, rated E for comic mischief).

Gardening Mama

This Nintendo DS exclusive game adapts the popular Cooking Mama series into a gardening game full of different games modes that includes several types of fruits, veggies and flowers. You can even prune and fertilize your green thumb creations and try to grow the most in multiplayer competitions with multi-card and single card play modes. Unlockable items like clothing and decorations create some good incentives, but the growing game aspects will be enough reward for most players (***, rated E for everyone).

A grand prize of $150,000 will be given away June 9 in the St. Jude Dream Giveaway.
This event could help make someone’s dreams come true, while benefiting a worthy cause, according to the Michigan office of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The winner could pay off a mortgage, put a down payment on a new home, renovate a home, purchase a new luxury car, take a dream vacation or use the $150,000 (before taxes) for any other choice at the winner’s discretion, the office stated.
Only 6,500 tickets will be sold at $100 each for the $150,000 and other prizes with the drawing on WNWO NBC-24 television in Toledo on June 9. Proceeds from this event will benefit St. Jude Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.
In addition to the $150,000 grand prize, the drawing will include 12 additional prizes all valued at $1,000 or more. The other prizes include a $1,000 gift certificate to Alan Miller Jewelers and a 42-inch LG plasma screen television.
Alan Miller Jewelers, Toledo Door & Window, K-100 and Westfield Franklin Park Mall are sponsors of the local event.
“K-100 is proud to have been the radio partner with St. Jude Children’s Hospital for several years now,” said Harvey Steele of the Shores & Steele morning show on K-100.
“We’re happy to be involved since Danny Thomas, who grew up in North Toledo, established St. Jude, so there’s a great local tie in there.”
The station is promoting the event on the air and on its Web site. It will conduct a live remote broadcast from Franklin Park Mall on June 7 from noon to 5 p.m.
Tickets for the St. Jude Dream Giveaway are on sale at the concierge booth at Westfield Franklin Park Mall located near Borders and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Tickets can be reserved by calling (800) 831-7061 or by visiting www.stjudedreamgiveaway.org.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is internationally recognized for its pioneering work in finding cures and saving children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases, according to its Web site. St. Jude is the first and only pediatric cancer center to be designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute.
“No child is ever denied treatment because of the family’s inability to pay,” the Web site stated. “families never pay for treatment not covered by insurance.”
For more information, visit the Web site www.stjude.org.
In addition, K-100’s Steele will serve as master of ceremonies for the Relay for Life of Maumee beginning at 6 p.m. May 29.
The all-night event for the entire family includes a walk or run to help raise money for cancer education and research ending at noon May 30.
Relay for Life events in Ohio raised more than $16.7 million for cancer research last year, according to the American Cancer Society.
To enter or learn more about the local event, call (419) 867-8188 or (888) 227-6446, Ext. 5211.

Brian Holloway grew up knowing he was wired differently.
“I just knew that I didn’t quite fit in, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on,” he said. “Then, I discovered if I had music on or if I was in a loud room with something else going on, it would help. It allowed me in a strange way to focus.”

Brian Holloway

Holloway, who grew up with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia, said he learned ways to improve — on his way to graduating with honors from high school and Stanford — where he received an academic and athletic scholarship. He played in the NFL with the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Raiders from 1981 through 1989. He was the captain of the 1985 Patriots Super Bowl team.
Holloway was in Toledo on May 21 as the keynote speaker for Celebrating Recovery, a Neighborhood Properties Inc. event that honored two people who have overcame addictions or mental illnesses, as well as three people who have done great things in the field of mental illness.
“The most important thing for someone who is struggling with a mental illness is to look at your diet,” Holloway said.
In addition, he said that if you’re eating a bunch of carbs, candy or sugar, you should start eating vegetables, while also beginning some level of exercise every day.
“If you do those three things, it will make a huge difference,” he said. “Then, look for ways you can start setting goals so you can put structure in your life, so you don’t spend all your time spinning in this wheel of despair, anxiousness, depression, fear or confusion.”
Holloway, struggled through elementary school, but started turning it around in high school.
“For me to understand what was really going on, I had to read a page three times and take notes. After I finished reading, I had to study the notes and read it again. Can you imagine the volume? At Stanford, I had to read 800 pages a day. Now that I know more and understand more, it would have been a great help to me if I had some strategies back then that I know now.”
He said reading the 800 pages a day gave him the greatest single feeling of satisfaction in his life because, at that moment, he felt nothing could stop him.
His fourth-grade teacher once told him: “you will never, ever win. You’re going to have to accept the fact that some people are just born stupid. You are not school material.”
It was then that Holloway reached what he called his “inspirational disgust.”
“It’s the point where you say, ‘I’ve had enough.’ It’s the point where you reach out and get some help and tell yourself, ‘I’m not going to do this alone. I’ve got to change because if I don’t, this is what’s going to happen.’”
Holloway said he was fortunate enough to grow up with a structured environment in sports, where he competed in track and football.
“It played a big part in the structure, support, motivation and encouragement, which is very influential for anyone to succeed and for anyone who thinks differently, is diagnosed differently or anyone who is mentally ill.”
Holloway encourages people to use medicine as a last resort.
“Before I would ever encourage anyone to get medication, I would get the support group, the psychologists, the psychiatric evaluation,” he said. “I think the first and most simple thing you do is take a look at your diet, nutrition and exercise. It can make an amazing difference. You don’t have to be an athlete [to make those changes].”
Holloway graduated from Stanford with a degree in economics and communication. He helped write the free agency agreement in the NFL. He is now a specialist consultant in corporate development.
He is hired by Fortune 500 companies that are going through a change or transformation. He goes in and studies their business models and helps them rebuild, or helps them “drive the change”
“Put it this way,” he said. “The stuff I do this week, you’ll read about in the Wall Street Journal in three to four months.”
Another thing Holloway is good at is family. He has eight kids with his wife, Tammy, of 27 years.
“My wife likes me, and I like her,” he said with a smile.
Holloway said if anyone has questions for him, visit his Web site, www.brianholloway.com.

Celebrating Recovery, a May 21 Neighborhood Properties Inc.   event, honored two people who have overcame addictions or mental illnesses, as well as three people who work in the field of mental illness.

• Betty Wilson, program manager, Hope for Families at St. Vincent Medical Center.
• Erin Thompson, public affairs specialist, Social Security Administration in Toledo.
• Theresa Butler, clinical supervisor at Unison Behavioral Health Group.
• Monica Allison, Owens Community College student, who overcame a crack addiction and prison.
• Larry Wanucha, NPI housing support specialist, who discussed living with schizophrenia, while being an artist, advocate and case manager.

The City of Toledo is partnering with a local startup company, SuGanit Systems, to test the firm’s formula for ethanol fuel produced from non-food cellulose known as biomass material.
The City of Toledo will run a pilot program to test SuGanit’s ethanol fuel in three city vehicles this summer. The program will include tests for emissions, miles per gallon and cost differentials, according to Ken Neidert, commissioner of fleet and facility operations for the city.

From left, Toledo Mayor Carty FInkbeiner, Praveen Paripati of SuGanit, City Councilman Mark Sobczak and UT’s Megan Reichert-Kral.

SuGanit’s formula for biofuel will be used as a 10 percent mix with gasoline for the pilot program with city vehicles. Once in production, the fuel will be stored in a double-wall tank at the City’s Streets Bridges and Harbor Facility on West Central Ave. near the Interstate-75 and I-475 interchange.
Neidert also said the City of Toledo will be testing the use of propane to run 10 police vehicles that are Ford Crown Victoria models this year. That test will begin as soon as appropriations for it become available, he added.
SuGanit Systems was founded by Praveen Paripati to develop the ethanol product from research being conducted by Sasidhar Varanasi, professor of chemical engineering at the University of Toledo.
UT developed and licensed the technology to SuGanit and Paripati. Varanasi continues to work on the refinement of the ethanol product in laboratories at the College of Engineering where SuGanit Systems currently operates from an incubator space.
“The City of Toledo is providing us with an opportunity for a pilot program to test the ethanol made from non-food cellulose biomass,” Paripati said at a May 27 press conference. “We could not have reached this point without the research conducted at the university, and help of [Regional Growth Partnership (RGP)] and the Port Authority.”
RGP and Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority helped SuGanit Systems to obtain a $997,000 grant from the Third Frontier Alternative Energy Program of Ohio’s Department of Development. The funds will be used to test and produce the ethanol product for commercial use.
Paripati said that it would create 20 to 25 jobs for the pilot program and later as many as 100 jobs for the production of the ethanol. They expect to produce as much as 20 million gallons per year when full-scale production begins in the next 18 to 24 months.
“It’s as green as it gets using waste products to produce ethanol for fuel,” said Mark Sobczak, president of Toledo City Council, who recognized the partnership involving the city, SuGanit, Port Authority, RGP and UT.
“It’s part of the future where Northwest Ohio is going with technology developed at UT,” said Megan Reichert-Kral, director of incubation for the Office of Research Development at UT.
“Toledo has been recognized as the Glass city for many years but there will come a day 20 years from now when people will know Toledo as an alternative energy community,” said Toledo Mayor Carty Finkbeiner.