Lemonade Day McMinnville was a HUGE Success

Lemonade Day McMinnville was a HUGE Success

by Nathan Knottingham
For the casual observer May 2^nd had a lot of lemonade stands popping up all around town.  However, to each young entrepreneur behind those stands Lemonade Day McMinnville was about much more than lemonade.  It was a lesson in economics, a salute to the entrepreneurial spirit, the celebration of ingenuity and perseverance, a moment for community support, and moments of pure parental pride.  Lemonade Day McMinnville is the sum of many stories and experiences that is motivating a new generation to understand and appreciate the hard work and dedication it takes to operate a business.
It is expected that the McMinnville Chamber of Commerce would applaud this program and try to express why Youth Entrepreneurship is so important. It is also readily expected that businesses around the community would sponsor this program so that the youth could sign up for free and be provided these great training resources.  Moreover, no matter how well we say it, the message falls short when not spoken by the Youth and Mentors involved.  Here are couple stories that have come in so far from the business results entries, I think they summarize the beauty of this program better than anything we could say.
“This was Ellie’s project.  She is 9 years old, this is her first time doing something like this, and she was excited to try.  We got permission from the McMinnville Aquatic Center to set up outside, so Ellie set up behind the Aquatic Center, facing the city playground, on the corner closest to the city library for maximum foot traffic.  No immediate customers came up, so I (mom) started to help Ellie walk around the playground and offer lemonade for sale and she found that by approaching people where they were, she sold 4 out of 5 times usually.  She soon gained the confidence to run this promotional line by herself, and Madison (sister) operated the table while Ellie ran all over the playground, talking to everyone, taking money and making deliveries.  She sold to the yard workers across the street, the people in the lower parkway down the hill, and generally everywhere.  She also had repeat customers who liked the lemonade.
…In the end, they completely sold out of all the lemonade they had, made a very decent profit based on overhead and investment expenses.  It was a very good business lesson for them, as they could see that PEOPLE run the business, and high overhead does not equal sales but facilities can be improved as one earns the money.  They want to do it every weekend now.”
~Ellie and Madison Hamilton Hansen – Young Entrepreneurs, Evanie Hamilton Hansen – Mentor
“Our lemonade stand was called Rainbow Lemonade “Where the gold’s at both ends”. After the kick off party we immediately came home and started planning. We were sitting in our living room brain storming when we noticed a rainbow on our wall from the sun shining through our window. That was the moment Rainbow Lemonade was born. Our ideas started pouring out! We decided to have a different flavored lemonade for every color of the rainbow.  We served Strawberry  Lemonade  (red) Arnold Palmer  (Orange) Classic Lemonade  (yellow) Lemon Limade (green) Tropical Lemonade (blue) and grape lemonade (purple). We had a large cup that we sold for $2 with your choice of a regular  straw or fun rainbow colored crazy straws for an additional $.50. We also had amazing rainbow souvenir cups that we sold for $4…
Once our location was secure, we started to advertise. Our daddy told everyone at his work. We went around and told all of our neighbors, friends and teachers and asked them to please tell their family and friends. We also created an event on Facebook and invited everyone we knew in McMinnville, again we asked them to share with their family and friends. On lemonade day, we tried to get more customers by making a sign that we placed out on hwy-99. We had music playing at our stand and asked people as they walked by if they would like to buy some delicious fresh squeezed lemonade.
Our stand was a major success! We had to close an hour early because we sold out of all of our lemonade and we passed our original goals! Not only did we get to pay our investor with interest, make a nice size donation to the Homeward Bound Pets, save a little bit for our college funds and buy ourselves some prizes for our efforts, we got to meet and make friends with many other people in our community.
…Thank you McMinnville Chamber of Commerce for opening our eyes to a whole new world with this event. We never thought owning our own lemonade stand would be so much fun and so hard! We had our stand open for 7 hours. We have learned to appreciate our parents more who work a lot more hours than that every day. Thank you!”
~Kali and Kayley McGrauth – Young Entrepreneurs, Kerry and Laurie McGrauth – Mentors. 
More stories keep coming in and we are excited to hear what all these Young Entrepreneurs learned this year.  I can say without a doubt that we learned a thing or two from these wonderfully brave youth:

1. Don’t be afraid to set the goals high, because they will surpass your expectations and do it with style.
2. The world needs to embrace the brave and bold that are willing to set a goal and work hard, they are the leaders of tomorrow after all.
3. Don’t dismiss the ideas of Young Entrepreneurs because if you do you wouldn’t get to experience the magical lemonade made with carbonated water and lavender…yum!