It’s a sweet way to teach kids business skills and get them involved in their community. Members at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County’s Middlebury Clubhouse are spending their summer taking part in Junior Achievement of Elkhart County’s Lemonade Day program.
Lemonade Day walks them through the process of taking a dream to a business plan, while teaching them the same principles required to start any company.
“It gives them a chance to be exposed to the business environment by deciding what to sell, how to produce it and market it,” said Austin Floria, one of the adults coaching kids at the Middlebury Club.
Members created a drink called “Enchanted Pond” which is a lemonade drink that adds Swedish fish and Nerds.
“What makes our drink different is it’s blue and it has candy in it,” said member Theo. “We learned a lot about starting a business and making a business plan. There were a lot of vocabulary words involved.”
In addition to the drink, they made and sold cookies. Coming up with products was harder than some of the kids thought.
“It was hard because there were a lot of people with ideas and that made it a little harder to decide which ones to go with,” said member Peyton. “The drink sounded good in everyone’s head, but we wanted to make sure it tastes as good as it sounds.
The kids are also getting experience working with investors. They recruited Boys & Girls Club board members to back them. Those investors will be paid back with any profits made from selling the cookies and their drink.
“Our community partners have been great working with the kids and helping them understand running a business,” Floria said.
About a dozen members are taking part in the program.