OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Mount Stewart Elementary student starts her own venture after missing program deadline

Mount Stewart Elementary student starts her own venture after missing program deadline

A 10-year-old entrepreneur turned a disappointment earlier this year into a business venture that’s raising money and helping people in need.

Isabella Baker had plans with her friends to join the Young Millionaires Program this summer.

“We were going to do jewelry and bookmarks and stuff like that and sell them,” she told The Guardian in an interview Monday.

Those plans went awry when her mother, Emily Baker, discovered they had missed the registration deadline and the program was full.

The West Royalty Elementary School student was upset.

“My friends were in it and we were planning to do it together, but we didn’t get a chance to because I didn’t get in,” Isabella said.

There were a couple tears shed, her mom added, but it didn’t take them long to sit down and come up with a new plan.

“We decided we were going to do something else, and sell something else,” Isabella said.

With the help of her mother, the young entrepreneur has been putting frames around pictures of P.E.I. and is selling them for $10 each. Isabella and her mother hand deliver most of their pictures, but posting their product on Facebook has gained some off-Island requests.

“We are sending one to New York this morning,” her mom said.

So far, Isabella has sold 48 framed pictures, but the business isn’t just about making money.

“So far we have delivered three pizzas to homeless people,” Isabella said.

It was one of the first things she did after selling some pictures. Isabella said she likes the feeling she gets when she helps others and makes them feel good.

“It helps people out.”

This isn’t the first time she has put her money to use in order to

help others in the community.

When Isabella was seven years old, she placed money in a small baggy along with a Christmas card on the windshield of cars at

the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to help visitors and families pay for parking.

Anyone looking to support Isabella in her business and charitable

venture can find her product on Emily Baker’s Facebook page.

TONY DAVIS/THE GUARDIAN Ten-year-old entrepreneur Isabelle Baker displays one of the pictures she is selling on her own initiative after missing the deadline to participate in the Young Millionaires program.