12th Annual Lemonade Day McMinnville: Celebrating a Summer of Young Entrepreneurs

What a summer it has been! The 12th Annual Lemonade Day McMinnville has officially wrapped, and our community has so much to celebrate. After months of planning, learning, pitching, preparing and dreaming, more than 670 young entrepreneurs took part in this year’s program, with more than 100 lemonade stands operating throughout McMinnville on August 15.

From the very beginning, it was clear that this was going to be a special year. And when the big day arrived, our city came alive with young business owners ready to put everything they had learned into action.

A Summer of Learning, Planning and Preparing

Lemonade Day McMinnville is about much more than selling a cup of lemonade. It is an opportunity for young people to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and financial literacy in a way that is fun, hands-on and meaningful. They learn how to set goals, create a business plan, budget, market their business, serve customers, manage money and overcome challenges. This summer, we watched our young entrepreneurs put those lessons to work.

The McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce hosted eight registration and sign-up events, giving youth and their families opportunities to learn about Lemonade Day, get registered and begin preparing for their big day. And they worked hard! For weeks, our young entrepreneurs were developing recipes, creating signs, setting prices, building business plans, thinking about marketing and figuring out how they were going to make their lemonade businesses successful. The excitement continued to build all summer long.

Best of the Zest: Young Entrepreneurs Take the Stage

One of the highlights of this year’s Lemonade Day experience was Best of the Zest sponsored by T-Mobile, our Shark Tank-style youth business pitch competition. Young entrepreneurs stepped in front of judges to pitch their lemonade businesses and compete for seed money to help launch their ideas on Lemonade Day. They prepared business pitches, practiced presenting their ideas and answered questions — all while learning what it takes to communicate a business concept and make a case for an investment. Watching these young people stand up and confidently share their ideas was one of the most rewarding parts of the entire program. They weren’t just preparing to sell lemonade. They were learning to think like entrepreneurs.

Then Came the Big Day!

After an entire summer of preparation, the moment everyone had been waiting for finally arrived. Lemonade Day McMinnville was here! 

On August 15, more than 100 lemonade stands opened throughout our community, transforming McMinnville into a citywide celebration of youth entrepreneurship. Young entrepreneurs welcomed customers, served lemonade, handled money, answered questions, practiced customer service and worked together to make their businesses successful. Some stands were simple. Some were incredibly elaborate. All of them represented something important: a young person willing to take an idea and turn it into action. Every cup of lemonade sold was a lesson in business. Every customer interaction was an opportunity to learn. Every challenge was a chance to problem-solve. And every sale was a little victory.

We couldn’t be more proud of the enthusiasm, creativity and determination we saw throughout our community.

A Special Visit from National Lemonade Day

This year’s big day brought an especially wonderful surprise. We were thrilled to welcome Ken, a regional representative from National Lemonade Day, to McMinnville to experience our celebration firsthand. Ken spent the day with us, getting to see our incredible community — and, most importantly, our young entrepreneurs — in action.

He joined Representative Lucetta Elmer, Mayor Kim Morris and Chamber President John Olson for a Lemonade Day stands tour, visiting young entrepreneurs throughout the city and experiencing the excitement of the day firsthand. Having Ken here was a special opportunity to showcase what makes Lemonade Day McMinnville so unique. After 12 years, this program has become much more than an annual event. It has become a community tradition that brings together young people, families, businesses, volunteers, community leaders and supporters around one common goal: investing in the next generation.

We were proud to share McMinnville’s Lemonade Day with Ken and give him a firsthand look at the incredible things happening here.

Now We’re Waiting for the Results!

While the lemonade stands may be packed away for another year, the Lemonade Day experience isn’t quite finished. Our young entrepreneurs are now busy submitting their success stories and business results, and we are so excited to see what they accomplished.

We can’t wait to find out:

How much did they share?

How much did they save?

How much did they spend?

Those numbers are an important part of the Lemonade Day experience, helping young people understand the value of earning money and making thoughtful decisions about what to do with it. But we also know the biggest results can’t always be measured on a spreadsheet. The real success is found in the confidence they gained. It is in the courage it took to stand behind a lemonade stand and talk to customers. It is in the problem-solving that happened when something didn’t go according to plan. It is in learning how to work with others, manage money, set goals and follow through. And it is in the possibility that one of these young entrepreneurs may discover a lifelong passion for business.

McMinnville, You Showed Up!

A program of this size doesn’t happen without an incredible community behind it. To the parents, grandparents, families, volunteers, sponsors, businesses, community leaders and everyone who stopped at a lemonade stand to purchase a cup, offer encouragement or simply cheer on a young entrepreneur — thank you. 

Your support matters. When a community takes the time to invest in its young people, the impact reaches far beyond one Saturday in August. You helped create opportunities for more than 670 youth to experience entrepreneurship firsthand. You helped them learn by doing. You helped them discover that their ideas have value. And you showed them that their community believes in them.

Cheers to 12 Years of Lemonade Day McMinnville!

As we celebrate the success of our 12th Annual Lemonade Day McMinnville, we are incredibly proud of every young entrepreneur who participated. You planned. You prepared. You pitched. You persevered. And you made it happen!

More than 670 youth registered. More than 100 lemonade stands opened across our city. Hundreds of young people gained real-world business experience. And an entire community came together to cheer them on. That is something worth celebrating.

Congratulations, Lemonade Day entrepreneurs! We are so proud of you and can’t wait to hear your success stories and see the results of all your hard work. Who knows? The lemonade stand you built this summer might just be the beginning of something much bigger. Here’s to the next generation of McMinnville entrepreneurs! 🍋💛

Lemonade Day McMinnville

Lemonade Day McMinnville is presented by the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce and made possible through the generous support of our sponsors, volunteers, families, businesses and community partners. Thank you for helping us create a summer these young entrepreneurs will never forget!