Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce has announced plans to conduct a community meeting early next month that will showcase the products and talents of an entrepreneur, an artist/business owner and a successful movie computer animator, all hailing from Greene County.
The April 5 meeting at the Bloomfield Junior-Senior High School cafeteria will tentatively start at 6 p.m. with finger foods and light refreshments, according to an announcement made Thursday at the Chamber's regular monthly luncheon meeting.
The three local residents will each be featured in 20-minute programs starting at about 7 p.m.
Featured will be:
* Sawyer Sparks, a 2005 Bloomfield graduate, is a young Purdue University business entrepreneur, who has developed a modeling clay called "Soy-Yer- Dough". He appeared on the ABC-TV reality show "Shark Tank" last September and successfully persuaded three of the investors to shell out $100,000 each to back his product and take controlling interest in his soybean-based gluten-free product for youngsters. He has plans to start a production facility in Greene County in the near future.
*Bloomfield graduate Wyatt LaGrand, owner of LeGrand Art Studio and Gallery, opened his business last October on State Road 54, west of Bloomfield. He is experienced in drawing, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, textiles, metalsmithing and jewelry-making. He is a frequent instructor for local workshops and classes.
*Cory Bedwell, 1989 Linton-Stockton graduate, handled much of the special, computer-animated effects for popular "Lord of the Rings" series of movies. He has been working in the movie industry as a technical director for more than 15 years. After a year studying commercial art at Vincennes University, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in computer animation from the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Fla. He has worked for such successful films as "Multiplicity", "Turbulence", "Air Force One", "Starship Troopers", "Soldier, Wing Commander", "Earth to the Moon", "Stuart Little", "Hollow Man". "The Water Horse", "Rise of the Silver Surfer", "Eragon", "X-Men: The Last Stand", "King Kong" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban".