Original Published on Jun 23, 2022 at 10:23
By Jesse Boily, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Young entrepreneurs were busy bringing their businesses to fruition on Saturday for Lemonade Day despite a downpour of rain.
Approximately 27 lemonade stands were set up across the South Peace for the third year of Lemonade Day.
“We teach kids how to start their own business, and they operate a lemonade stand for a day,” said Sarah Bateman, Community Futures business development officer.
“They learn things like basic budgeting, marketing, and just basic business skills.
“Then we encourage them to spend some, save some, and share some.”
The sharing last year resulted in more than $7,000 being donated to local charities, such as Bandaged Paws, the St. Lawrence Centre, and Big Brothers and Sisters.
Gabriella Wright, 8, and Sophia Osorio-Espinosa, 8, was busy running their lemonade stand, Tropical Lemonade, on 100 Ave.
Wright explained that their parents were their investors, and some of their profits from the day would go to the Stollery Children’s Hospital in Edmonton.
Down the street was Juicy Fruits, a stand operated by Tycho Kozie, 9, Nova Kozie, 7, and Braylei Klein, 7, selling lemonade, limeade and treats.
Tycho said he learned just how hard it was to run a business.
“It’s much harder than I thought it was going to be,” he said.
He noted finding a tablecloth and one easy to clean was part of his challenges, along with figuring out what to price the lemonade.
Another 100 Ave. lemonade stand was TK’s Lemonade, owned and operated by a sibling team of 11-year-old Taylor and Kolton Strand, 8, who began planning their stand almost a month ago.
Taylor was also selling her artwork, which sold out quickly; she noted that her funds from her artwork would go in a donation towards Bandaged Paws.
Kolton and his father built the stand while Taylor decorated it with delicate touches like a hanging string of lemons and finely painted lemons on the sign.
Last year 696 children in northern Alberta participated in Lemonade Stand Day; this year, it has grown to over 700, said Bateman.
In the Grande Prairie region, about 100 children participated on Saturday, with 23 stands active in Grande Prairie, two in Wembley, and one each in Beaverlodge and Clairmont.
Community Futures created a workbook to help the children plan their business by creating a business plan, finding an investor (often parents or a family friend), finding the pricing to sell lemonade at, and figuring out how much to pay back an investor.
“There’s actually a page in the workbook to make an agreement with the investor, and we teach them you might have to pay some interest, just to make it as like as realistic as possible,” said Bateman.
She explained that teaching children entrepreneurship skills illustrate there is a strategy in setting prices on a product, as well as many other aspects of running a business.
“All the planning (required is teaching) really great skills that they can use as they get older,” said Bateman.
This item reprinted from Town & Country News, Beaverlodge, Alberta
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