Homeless Shelter from Packing Peanuts

Thinking of the stimulus package, could someone give this kid a billion and let him loose, please.

12-year-old Max Wallack stole the show at the PBS Design Squad’s Trash to Treasure contest with his “Home Dome.” The contest asked kids to repurpose trash into practical inventions.

The dome provides shelter for the homeless and is made from plastic, wire and packing peanuts. Pretty much, trash.

The trash-plex looks like one of Bucky Fuller's geodesic domes, and let Max walk away with $10,000 and a Dell laptop. He also got a trip to Boston out of it. But Max had this to say, “I don’t really care about the money. I care about helping people.”

This isn’t his first big win. “When I was six,” Max said, “I won an invention contest that included a trip to Chicago. While there, I saw homeless people living on streets, and beneath highways and underpasses. I felt very sorry for these people, and ever since then, felt that my goal and obligation was to find a way to help them. My invention improves the living conditions for homeless people, refugees, or disaster victims by giving them easy-to-assemble shelter.”

Congratulations and thank you, Max!