A cold winter day might have some dreaming of sunnier times with a nice cold lemonade in hand.
This year, however, lemonade will be used as a teaching tool as the Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound and North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce present Lemonade Day.
“Lemonade Day is an initiative for kids to start, own and operate their own lemonade stand,” Kennedy Horton, the program and events coordinator at the Business Centre said. “There is training that they can participate in and workbooks that they have to complete.”
Registration is open now for children aged nine to 12 and closes April 1. On April 8 there will be lemonade lessons, as a training day, while June 6 will be Lemonade Day. Those who register will receive a backpack with the workbook that outlines the steps needed to start a business.
The process is designed to teach children the steps needed to start a business, setting goals, creating a business plan, forming a budget, finding an investor, saving money and donating a part back to the community.
“The whole idea came from the Young Professionals committee at the Chamber of Commerce and they thought the Business Centre a great partnership to offer this program because we deal with a bunch of entrepreneurs on a day to day basis,” Horton explained. “We thought it would be great to be the first to offer this in Ontario and to offer it to our community.”
There will be a competitive side to Lemonade Day as well. Kids will compete in three categories; best tasting, best stand and young entrepreneur of the year. Best tasting and best stand are awarded locally, while the young entrepreneur of the year is awarded nationally. Whoever wins that distinction will be able to attend the national conference in Dallas, Texas.
As for the day itself, Horton says they welcome outside competition.
“The licence that we hold is for the City of North Bay,” she said. “As long as they set up their lemonade stands within the city limits, we have no problem with them coming from outside and putting their lemonade stand in North Bay.”