Part 1 in a Series by Steven Gordon, President, Lemonade Day

“You don’t raise successful human beings by doing everything for them. You raise them by teaching them how to do it for themselves.”

Steve Wentworth – Author, Speaker, Spiritual Teacher

From the World Economic Forum to the Kauffman Foundation, the message from strategists and influencers is the same: We need creative, inventive, entrepreneurial thinkers to lead the way in solving some of the most troubling social and economic problems facing our nation and our world.

I am proud and honored to have been chosen as president of Lemonade Day earlier this year. In this role, I am responsible for leading and expanding a youth entrepreneurship program that has the potential to impact as many as 100,000 K-5 students in approximately 41 states and Canadian provinces by Summer 2018. 

Established in 2007, Lemonade Day has proven to be an effective program that delivers key entrepreneurial and character building education that has a long-term, meaningful impact.  Children who participate in Lemonade Day have a unique opportunity to change the trajectory of their life in a positive and measurable way.  But, to accomplish this, these special young people need our help.

Every young person who registers to participate in Lemonade Day receives guidance from one or more caring adults who agree to serve as their mentors. Caring adults are parents, relatives, friends, neighbors, teachers, and community volunteers who work closely with these young people to hone important skills such as planning, budgeting, promoting, selling and serving.  Caring adults assist them in setting and achieving their goals for their lemonade businesses. Caring adults help these young business owners decide what to do with their profits, encouraging them to spend some, save some and share some.

The beginning of the school year is the perfect time to inspire entrepreneurship among our youth. This is also the perfect time to recruit and engage more adults to mentor lemonade business owners who will launch their operations in spring and summer of next year.

Lemonade Day works. And we have proof of that! I invite you to join me in inspiring entrepreneurship among the young people in your life. Thank you in advance for your support.

Please follow these links for more information:

https://lemonadeday.org/blog/how-lemonade-day-helped-shape-one-childs-life-meet-tiye-mckethen

https://lemonadeday.org/blog/team-victor

Please follow these links to access a recent Lemonade Day Impact Study and Success Stories:

https://lemonadeday.org/sweet-success-stories

https://lemonadeday.org/sites/default/files/resources/2017-impact-paper-final-min.pdf

About Lemonade Day

Established in Houston in 2007 by Michael and Lisa Holthouse, Lemonade Day is a non-profit dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship. By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults. Through our fun, hands-on program Kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100 percent of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.

Lemonade Day is in 65 cities throughout the United States and Canada. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million youth in our kid entrepreneur programs.

Please visit LemonadeDay.org to learn how to participate in Lemonade Day in your city.