The Furnace Girl – The Mysterious Case of Elfrieda Knaak

Summary of the program: Kraig will share some interesting photos and stories behind the creation of The Furnace Girl. The book has been featured on WGN TV’s Backstory with Larry Potash, and New York radio Mornin’ with Bill Schulz.  Several local magazines including Sheridan Rd, Forest & Bluff Magazine, and Modern Luxury have covered the book and it has been the top selling book in 2018 at Lake Forest Bookstore.

Biography: Kraig has lived in Lake Bluff, Illinois his entire life. After working 10 years in advertising and marketing, he founded New Vision Athletics, Inc. in 1996, a privately-held sports league on the north shore of Chicago. Kraig and his wife Jennifer have raised their four children in Lake Bluff.  They co-founded the Margo Moreland Charitable Foundation in 1999, which supports children afflicted with Cerebral Palsy.

Kraig has a great passion for film and local history.  Over the last 15 years, he has helped write and co-produce the Lake Bluff Ghost Walk.  In 2011, Kraig wrote, filmed, and produced a two-hour documentary "A Childhood Lost & Found - A Journey back to The Lake Bluff Children's Home," a heart-felt story of the Lake Bluff Orphanage, the children who lived there and the people who cared for them. The film was awarded a "Superior Award" from the Illinois Association of Museums in 2012.

He is the recipient of the 2012 I Care Award, and also an honorary Paul Harris Fellow Rotary award. Kraig was a featured speaker at Rosalind Franklin University Medical School in 2014 for the TedMed Live talk.