FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 19, 2007

For more information contact:
Valerie Spanos, President
Mountain Meadow Wool
22 Plains Drive
Buffalo, WY 82834
Cell: 307.620.5061

Tom Lacock, Senior Marketing & PR Specialist
Wyoming Business Council
Office: 307.777.2834

Mountain Meadow Wool is awarded SBIR Phase 0

CHEYENNE – Granting a little shelter from the dangers of war for the dogs that do the same for servicemen and women is the aim of December’s Phase 0 award.

Mountain Meadow Wool of Buffalo received a $5,000 Phase 0 award in November through the Wyoming Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer Initiative (WSSI) and the Wyoming Business Council. The SBIR Phase 0 Program helps Wyoming companies develop competitive proposals for the federal SBIR and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. The WSSI receives funding from the Wyoming Business Council and gives out $120,000 in Phase 0 awards each year.

Mountain Meadow will use the $5,000 to submit a proposal to the Department of Defense (DoD) to Study the feasibility of utilizing wool in a shelter designed to protect military working dogs from chemical and biological attack. According to Mountain Meadow Wool’s Valerie Spanos, Mountain Meadow is developing a shelter that would involve wool as well as an underlying material. Given the fact wool is naturally anti-microbial and can absorb moisture better than synthetic fibers, Spanos says this is an excellent use for wool.

“In order to protect these vital members of the armed forces, we are looking at the feasibility of a shelter composed of wool,” Spanos said. “Making dog shelters wasn’t something we initially envisioned (when they started the company) for an early-stage wool processor, but it really seems like a good fit.”

In addition to comfort in extreme temperature, the DoD is requesting that the material and the shelter itself allow for the transfer of oxygen and carbon dioxide, be flame resistant and absorb moisture. With this company’s past research into the qualities of wool, they believe that wool in conjunction with evolving smart textile technology is an ideal material for solving this problem.

Mountain Meadow has been awarded a Phase I as well as a Phase II awards through the USDA in the past worth a total of $300,000 for their work in early-stage wool processing. They are hoping to be producing yarn by the end of Feb.

The federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs make up the WSSI alliance and provide more than $2 billion annually in Research and Development (R&D) awards and contracts to qualified small businesses.

Eleven federal agencies are required by law to provide these funds by setting aside 2.5 percent of their annual extra-mural R&D budgets for use exclusively by U.S. small businesses for new product R&D. Hence, these programs provide a unique source of start-up and seed capital for small businesses to develop new innovative product concepts.

The mission of the Wyoming Business Council is to facilitate the economic growth of Wyoming. For more information, please visit the Web site at www.wyomingbusiness.org.

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