A student with Adel-DeSoto-Minburn Middle School will get a chance to travel across the country for  a prestigious competition.

Roen Lenz was selected to compete at the Invention Convention US Nationals for his invention that helps people escape from a home fire. Lenz says that his invention connects to a smoke alarm and when the alarm goes off it’ll send a signal to the receiver that flashes someone’s lights in their home. He tells Raccoon Valley Radio that he submitted this project through the independent inventor program to be judged and they loved how this could potentially help people in dangerous situations. 

“I think the (Judges) liked the safety aspect and how it can help people. And one of the judges, I think, was from California, she said, or he said and he said, how some of the wildfires out there or out on the West Coast that this would be like a good thing to help them since they have a higher risk of fires out there.”

Lenz will be among thousands of other student innovators who competed at the state and local competitions and his project will be judged by a panel of educational and industry experts. Lenz notes that he wouldn’t be able to make it without the help from his family. 

“It’s been nice. They have supported me the whole way through it. So that’s a good thing. I don’t think I’d be here, well I know I wouldn’t be here, if it wasn’t for them.”

The Invention Convention US Nationals competition will be from June 7-10th and it takes place at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.