Lemonade Day aims to teach life lessons
When life gives you lemons — make a business venture out of it.
The Houston area will be dotted with lemonade stands Sunday as more than 15,000 participants take on Lemonade Day, a free program that helps children ages 3 to 17 learn the basics about operating a business via a lemonade stand.
But don’t expect just run-of-themill lemonade — every stand has a different food and drinks menu. In addition to regular lemonade, the Pickapasta stand on Navigation Boulevard will be serving pink lemonade, horchata and mangonadas.
“The goal of Lemonade Day is to teach entrepreneurial skills, so although the focus is lemonade, the things that they do to enhance their stand means they are really embracing that entrepreneurial spirt,” Lemonade Day Houston spokeswoman Brandie Cleaver said.
Stand-owners are given a curriculum to learn how to maximize profit, what goes into the stand and how to pick a location.
While the budding entrepreneurs are supplied with public spaces in Discovery Green, the Galleria, Blue Triangle Multicultural Community Center and the market on Navigation, to set up shop, some opt for other spaces.
Ten-year-old Zoe Polk will open Zoe’s Sweet Shoppe outside her home for her first Lemonade Day.
“She’s been baking for about a year,” said Zoe’s mom, LaSonja Monroe-Polk. “Her granddad comes over every other Saturday and gives her recipes and bakes with her. We told my friend that Zoe wanted to take it further, and we just didn’t know what to do. So she said, ‘You know that Sunday is Lemonade Day.’ ”
An adult, usually a parent or mentor, must accompany each stand. Sometimes the adult doubles as an investor, Cleaver said. Students are taught how to pay back loans made by investors, even taking into account interest.
But Zoe won’t be paying anyone back, because she’s been saving the money she gets for doing chores.
“I saved $32 right now,” Zoe said. “I like to cook, and I want space for my bakery, Zoe’s Sweet Shoppe. I would just like to add that I will be saving my money up, too, to buy my turtle, Skittles, a new aquarium.”
Profits are used to make purchases, save money or donate to nonprofits. The Alpha Charity League, a multi-chapter organization, is looking at least to match last year’s profit to donate to several groups.
“A 14-year-old boy got to write a check for $4,500 last year to Texas Children’s,” league CEO Elizabeth Rutherford said. “We use Lemonade Day as a way to teach the boys how to handle money, chain of custody and full ownership of whatever money they raise. They get to see the full giving circle, and Lemonade Day is the catalyst of that.”
Cleaver said that although most participants are in third to eighth grade, even the youngest participants, who don’t understand finances, have something to gain.
“We have kindergarten students who are working in the program,” Cleaver said. “They’re probably not learning about profit margins, but that kindergarten student is learning how to work cooperatively.”
Remember to take cash when hitting the lemonade stands on Sunday.
“It would be interesting if someone in Houston encounters a lemonade stand taking a Square, or taking PayPal,” Cleaver said. “That little entrepreneur is probably someone we need to put on our radar.”