Spotlight on Russel Moore
A teen inventor who is a jack of many trades.

Russell Moore, 13, lives on a small organic farm in Trumbull, Connecticut, with his three brothers and one sister. He is the second oldest and enjoys helping his younger siblings with their homework, taking music lessons, and cooking his family extra special meals that he concocts from his head. Last week, he discovered the merits of using hummus as a breading for eggplant slices before sautéing the meal.

Most days you can find Moore collecting his Boy Scout gear for a camp out or taking care of his animals, which include a dog, a horse, cats and goats. Other times, Moore works his own plot of land to grow vegetables for his cooking or throws clay on his pottery kickwheel to make imaginative vases and bowls.

As his culinary creations and handmade pottery works express, Moore especially loves inventing new things.

Moore has won two toy invention competitions. Moore’s first invention was a vest kids wear to play a game he dubs Soak Tag, where you dunk the other kids when you tag them out. Now, the teen inventor is working on perfecting his Waterworks Building Toy, a marble run that lets kids construct pipelines of water.

Among Moore’s accolades: He won the BKFK Invent-A-Toy World Games two years in a row. Breakthrough TV in Canada filmed him for three days in New York City and at his home to make a pilot for a new show, Bright Sparks, that features young inventors and their entrepreneurial experience. The show captures Moore pitching his toy ideas to the CEO of FAO Schwarz and exhibiting at the International Licensing Show, where he talked with toy professionals from all over the world.

This fall, BKFK has asked Moore to beta test the new “Idea Locker,” which is a really cool new place for teens to create, develop, store and share their ideas. Moore says he’s proud BKFK asked him to be a “spokesteen” for its invention competitions, in which teens have the chance to win $10,000. BKFK also grants young inventors real-world business experiences provided through four recently launched BKFK invention competitions.

Along with being a “serial inventor,” Moore is an entertainer. He dances hip hop, jazz and tap at a local dance studio. He takes singing lessons and plays guitar. He has danced on stage at many professional theater performances, most notably the Yale Repertory Theatre and Connecticut Free Shakespeare.

Last summer, Moore worked with his actor friends to put on Love’s Labour’s Lost, directed by Ellen Lieberman. The show ran for four weeks in Bridgeport’s Beardsley Park Zoo and the Guilford Green. Moore played the part of Moth. Moore also likes to write for the stage and screen. The Eugene O’ Neil Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut staged one of his plays, OUT of this World, when Moore won the grand prize of the Young Playwrights Contest. And Moore recently teamed with his brothers to create a full-length family comedy called Farm Fresh about children’s lives on a farm in the suburbs.

Whether this teen decides to follow his passion for cooking, pottery, inventing, entertaining, collaborating— or a new hobby he picks up later in life— Russell Moore is a name people will likely be praising well into this new millennium.

To learn more about BKFK, the Idea Locker and invention competitions, visit www.bkfk.com.