Lemonade, Cookies, and Art For Sale! Kid entrepreneurs help save the planet.
by Heidi Trilling
Peace, love and understanding: kid entrepreneurs changing the world. Photo credit: Heidi Trilling
Children are learning a lot about our global environment in grade school these days.
Naturally curious and bursting with ideas, these little ones are ripe for activism and positive change — one lemonade stand at a time.
Let’s hear what some Bay Area kid entrepreneurs think about making — and donating — money.
Business-minded David, age 9, set up a lemonade stand with some friends at a busy corner once the springtime weather warmed up his neighborhood. As for marketing: “I just shouted out: ‘Lemonade for 75 cents!’ and then somebody just showed up,” David said. “A biker, and he stopped and was a customer!”
Selling lemonade and orange juice drinks by the cup, David wanted to donate half his earnings to Free the Children, an organization that has worked in partnership with his school to provide potable water to Emorijoi, a village in Africa.
“They need a well for water there, in Kenya,” David said, “I didn’t have much money from the stand to send right now, but I’m going to save up ’til it’s enough.” And what about the other half of the earnings? “I’m saving it for college,” he said.
Sebastian, age 7, decided to host a bake sale serving the dual purpose of helping earthquake victims via Give2Asia, and funding a future trip to Paris. “I just want to go there,” Sebastian said. “It seems like an interesting place.”
He set up shop in the grassy field at the center of his circular street. “We put it right there in the middle, so when people drive around, they’d see a bake sale. … I sold home-made chocolate chip cookies and pieces of cake,” he said. “My mom, me and my sister did the baking.”
Sometimes, Sebastian reported, there were lots of patrons, sometimes none. “One time, there were five people at once! … We were out there for about a half hour, I think, and made $15. … Somebody even wanted twenty little cupcakes for a birthday party! That was $10, since it was 50 cents a cupcake!”
Entrepreneurs Anna and Ali, on the other hand, wanted to re-think the traditional lemonade stand. They opted, instead, to sell original art. Their own.
Anna, age 7, said: “I didn’t want to deal with the gluten and citrus thing.” (Her family is careful with her diet after learning that she has some food sensitivities.) “So cookies and lemonade were out. But we love to draw! We could sell our drawings, instead, and help global warming and deforestation that way!”
“We wanted to sell something,” Ali, age 7, said. “We were thinking of sour grass and dandelions, but Anna’s mom didn’t think that would sell. But the idea of drawings was great. We’re both artists and can do that!”
The girls set to work. Soon, they had dozens of colorful drawings, and rocks to keep their masterpieces weighted down in the breeze. Camped next to a busy stop sign intersection, they made $18 in about an hour, split three ways: 1/3 for Anna, 1/3 for Ali, 1/3 for Al Gore’s Climate Project and The Rainforest Foundation, jointly.
What will each artist do with her share? “Put it in my piggy bank and save it,” Ali said. Anna agreed: “I’m saving up for a real bank account. In a real bank. And college.”
Young customers who patronize these kid-run stands have something to say about kids in business, too.
Adam, age 8, said: “I think that it’s really great, taking responsibility for helping the earth. I would like to do that someday, too.”
Emma, age 7, added: “I had a lemonade stand at a garage sale. … I’d do it again, and I’d support Free the Children in Kenya, too.” Any tips for kids in business? “I would say just make the stuff good so people will actually like it, and don’t charge too much.”
Marlina, age 8, added this excellent advice: “Have patience, and don’t get super-frustrated when people don’t come.”
Teaching children about saving, spending, investing and donating can be an outdoor, hands-on activity that is lots of fun — and a meaningful way to reinforce classroom and household lessons about philanthropy. Compassionate practices learned in childhood have a great chance of carrying on through adulthood. This is how we can all help change the world and save the planet.
Want to get your kids involved in lemonade-stand entrepreneurialism, too?
It’s pretty easy. You just need:
• A good cause. Does your child like sea creatures? How about Save the Whales? Discuss charities and organizations with your children; let them pick one of interest to them.
• A product to sell: lemonade, original art, or outgrown toys.
• A table and chairs.
• A jar of loose coins and small bills, to make change.
• Water bottles. It’s thirsty work, waiting for commerce!
• A grown-up chaperone.
• A safe, well-populated location.
• A welcoming attitude.
Have fun and do good in the world!
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