Who inspired this Soy-Yer-Dough wheat free modelling dough?”
Bloomfield native Sawyer Sparks successfully pitched his soy-based molding dough product and got a deal in the ABC television network show “Shark Tank” that aired Tuesday night. Sparks, a senior in the Purdue University School of Agriculture at West Lafayette, settled for a $300,000 deal — $100,000 each from three of the show’s five “sharks investors” for a 51 percent interest in his product — Soy-Yer-Dough. Soy-Yer-Dough, the first and only patented wheat-free modeling dough, was inspired by one of Sparks’ favorite Purdue professors and her daughter, who both suffer from Celiac disease, a wheat allergy. Sparks revealed that his new modeling dough compound was actually the result of a beer making project that surfaced when one of his professors at Purdue told him that she couldn’t drink beer because an intolerance to wheat gluten. It was also the result of an effort to find a modeling compound that the professor’s daughter could enjoy. As a result Sparks and two college buddies began
Soy-Yer Dough, the first and only patented wheat-free modeling dough, was inspired by one of Sparks’ favorite Purdue professors and her daughter, who both suffer from Celiac disease, a wheat allergy. ———— A rural Bloomfield resident, who is a senior in the Purdue University College of Agriculture in West Lafayette, will be featured next week on a national television show for young business entrepreneurs. Sawyer Sparks will appear on the ABC network show “Shark Tank” on Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST in an attempt to convince a panel of judges to financially back his invention — a soy-based modeling dough product. The show will air locally on WRTV-Channel 6 from Indianapolis. Sparks, the 22-year-old son of Ron and Sue Sparks and a 2005 graduate of Bloomfield Junior-Senior High School, was selected in a nationwide search by show producers who hope to discover the next successful — and possibly wealthy — entrepreneurs, inventors, dreamers, promoters, creators, and innovators. Sparks tol
