Three local Veteran business owners have won awards at the 2023 Veterans in Economic Transition Conference, or VETCON.
One winner is Mr. Electric of Queensbury owner, Sean Dion, who was awarded this year’s Patriot Warrior Award. The award is given to a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business that has continued to exhibit patriotism after trading their uniform for civilian attire.
The two other local winners participated in the Business Plan Competition, which received a record number of applications.
Pre-startup businesses and those no older than three years were eligible to apply.
In first place was Eric Lautenschlager, owner of Blast Radius Brewing Company in Albany, NY. The nano-brewery focuses on Co-Op and contract brewing and collaborations to produce hand-crafted ales with new, experimental flavors throughout Albany, Schenectady and Saratoga counties.
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In second place was owner of Tadpole Swimsuit, Michael Molinski of Hudson, N.Y. Tadpole Swimsuit is a children’s swimsuit designed with 24 floatation pockets from ankle to elbow to encourage proper swim technique.
“I was a varsity swimmer in high school, so my kids spend a lot of time in the water. My son was the inspiration for the suit. He is four years younger than his older sister and always trying to keep up. He would jump in the water at 2 years old, but didn’t know how to properly swim,” said Molinski.
Flotation pads in the suit’s 24 pockets may be removed as the child’s swimming improves. The suit has been tested on multiple children around 3 years of age, and Molinski attests that every child was able to swim independently within 10 minutes.
“I invented this suit to take buoyancy away from just chest and arms and distribute it across the entire body. Pool floats and life jackets create a false sense of security for children learning how to swim,” he said.
Drowning is the number one cause of death in children under the age of four, and Tadpole Swimsuit is designed to help prevent this from occurring, he said.
First place was awarded $3,000 and second place won $2,000. Awards were given at the closing luncheon on Nov. 29. The VETCON Business Plan competition was sponsored by the Tully Rinckey Foundation.
