The Island County Economic Development Council has posed an important question to 25 young entrepreneurs across the island: when life gives you lemons, what’s a kid to do?
The answer of course, Program Director Sami Postma said, is build and operate a lemonade stand.
And come Saturday, the kids participating in National Lemonade Day through the EDC will do just that.
“Lemonade Day is a national program to teach kids business experience such as budgeting, customer service, marketing and all that,” Postma said. “The EDC decided to bring it to Whidbey Island to show the kids that they can stay here, do something worthwhile and there’s a whole community behind them.”
The program, which was free to sign up for, targeted kids aged 8 to 12 and provided a backpack, workbook, several training classes at the library and a taste-testing on Tuesday that aimed to prepare them for their first day of business, Aug. 20.
When it comes to the profits they’ll make, kids are encouraged to “save some, spend some and donate some” to encourage good business practices.
This will be Taygin Jumps’ first year participating in Lemonade Day, and already the 11-year-old and her mother say the process has been rewarding.
“We’re spending a lot of time together and we’re learning a lot about each other, in the sense of how well we can work together and what we can do for each other to motivate each other to keep moving forward with it,” Taygin’s mother Christina Jump said. “It’s rewarding in the sense that we’re working together and learning a lot from each other.”
Taygin is hoping to raise money to send her 3-year-old cousin to a speech therapy camp. Her stand will be located at the Greenbank Farm.
Nicolas D’Heane, just 7 years old, is planning a tropical-themed lemonade stand in front of The Goose store in Bayview. His mother, Jennifer James, said her son has always liked activities that allow him to be creative and she feels Lemonade Day will teach him more about what it takes to be a businessman.
“Nic really loves science and animals, so he’s planning to use his proceeds for a cage dive with sharks at the Point Defiance Zoo,” said James.
11-year-old Thinalyn Ramier has participated in the event since she was five while living in Anchorage, Alaska, and was thrilled when she could do so again after moving to Oak Harbor in June.
“When I think about how much I’m helping people, it makes me happy because it’s a good deed,” she said. “When I was doing American Cancer Society, I was thinking it’s just a little donation and it’s helping to make people healthier and happier.”
This year, Ramier said she will donate her profit to the Time Together Adult Day Program at Bayview Senior Center.
Ramier’s stand will be a Pokemon Go stand with flavors that match the different types of Pokemon: a red Thimbleberry-Mango lemonade for fire types, purple Strawberry-Blueberry lemonade for psychic types, regular yellow lemonade for electric types and a green Kiwi-Mint lemonade for grass types. She hopes to set up her stand at City Beach.
For Postma, the program is all about opening the young entrepreneur’s eyes to the world of business.
“We really want them to see, especially at this really younger stage when they’re not already set on a path of what they’re going to do, that the community wants you to succeed and is willing to help you do that here on the island.”
