Lemonade Day teaches important skills

According to the latest employment report released by the Anchorage Economic Development Corp., job numbers remain solid moving into the summer season. It’s a great time to work in the state’s major economic hub. But what’s next? How do we maintain this momentum and teach business skills to the next generation? Enter: Lemonade Day.

Technology entrepreneur and philanthropist Michael Holthouse launched the first Lemonade Day in 2007 in Houston, Texas. The concept began when his daughter, wanting a pet turtle, started her own lemonade stand to raise the money needed for her pet. The lessons she learned along the way impressed Holthouse, and what started as a citywide event in Houston with 2,700 kids has spread across the United States and Canada, with more than 200,000 participants.

Seeing the success of the program, the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development, in partnership with the University of Alaska Anchorage College of Business and Public Policy, decided to bring the program to Alaska in 2011 as a way to teach youth about entrepreneurship in a fun way.

In 2011, the program had 1,000 participating youth in Anchorage, and since then the program has grown considerably with more than 3,000 youth participating in 42 Alaska communities last year. Support from the business community and local sponsors, such as Wells Fargo, has helped the program continue to grow each year.

As part of this nationwide educational program, Lemonade Day Alaska allows youth of all socio-economic backgrounds from Barrow to Ketchikan the opportunity to learn about starting their own business and other life lessons that they can’t learn in the classroom.

Youth learning financial skills, life values

A free experiential program, Lemonade Day gives youth from preschool through high school the skills needed to become successful entrepreneurs in the future. Through a step-by-step process, youth learn to set goals, develop a business plan, establish a budget, seek investors, provide customer service and give back to the community. Each lemonade stand owner keeps all revenue and is encouraged to save a little, spend a little and give a little to their favorite charity.

But Lemonade Day is much more than an entrepreneurship program, as it instills life skills that have far-reaching impacts on participants. While entrepreneurship is a cornerstone of the program, youth also learn about leadership and community stewardship.

One focus of the program is its encouragement of kids to give back to their communities. While the kids are allowed to keep all of the money that they make, they are encouraged to “share a little” too. Over the years, participants have taken this lesson to heart, with 56 percent choosing to donate a portion of their earnings to charity, with an average donation amount of $97, in 2014.

Another concept the program reinforces is financial literacy, or “saving a little.” Leading up to Lemonade Day, kids have a chance to participate in financial literacy workshops, in which youth learn the importance of saving money and of exercising prudent financial management, as well as how to price their lemonade, pay back their investors, and save money for the future. In 2014, 38 percent of participants deposited money into a savings account.

Lemonade Day is also the first opportunity for many kids to take on a leadership role as they manage younger siblings and friends. For many participants, Lemonade Day Alaska is an empowering activity that shows them how to mobilize resources to achieve goals.

Support young entrepreneurs

Lemonade stands will pop up in neighborhoods and at local businesses across Alaska this Saturday. More than 3,000 Alaska youth across the state are expected to open a lemonade stand on Lemonade Day. Stand locations can be found at Fred Meyer locations across the state, as well as in neighborhoods and outside other businesses. I encourage Alaskans to stop by and support the state’s young entrepreneurs who have been hard at work creating their own small businesses and becoming the next generation of entrepreneurs in Alaska. Additional information can be found at alaska.lemonadeday.org.