Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sour, but sweet: Community can support GISD’s future tycoons through Lemonade Day

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The Granbury Chamber of Commerce and Granbury ISD are asking the community to pucker up and show some lemonade love for forward-thinking fifth-graders who may be tomorrow’s awesome entrepreneurs.

The chamber, with buy-in from GISD, is bringing national Lemonade Day to Granbury.

On Saturday, May 20, chamber president and CEO Brian Bondy hopes there will be lemonade stands throughout the community operated by many of GISD’s 550 fifth graders. He is putting the squeeze, so to speak, on business owners, asking them to show their support by allowing lemonade stands to be placed on their parking lots or at their storefronts.

Bondy stated that the chamber purchased the license and the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills-approved curriculum, which comes with student workbooks.

With Lemonade Day taking place outside the classroom and on a Saturday, participation will be voluntary.

“While all students will be participating in financial literacy lessons in the classroom that mimic a business plan and such concepts, the actual Lemonade Day event is optional and initiated/led by parents and guardians with their student outside of school,” GISD Communications Director Lissa Oliver told the Hood County News in an email.

Bondy said that participating students will be in teams of two or three. Teams will be small so that each student will take home a larger share of profits. Depending on the number of students who take part in Lemonade Day, that could mean a lot of lemonade stands throughout the community.

Started in Houston in 2007 as a way to build self-esteem in students and ignite an entrepreneurial spirit, the strategic lesson-based program has to date impacted one million children in more than 80 licensed markets in the United Stated States, Canada, and Bermuda, including six U.S. military bases, according to the program’s website.

Through curriculum-based classroom learning that will take place in the last days of the school year, students will be taught the ins-and-outs of creating and operating a business.

As part of Lemonade Day, students will be tasked with building a lemonade stand and deciding what kind of lemonade they will sell. They can purchase Minute Maid or a mix, Bondy said, or they can create their own unique recipe.

Students must secure sponsorships or “business loans” to purchase ingredients and materials such as tablecloths, pitchers, and plastic cups. The loans are to be paid back with proceeds from sales.

Bondy said that the goal is for students to make enough profit to buy something for themselves, save some, and give some to an organization of their choice. Giving teaches philanthropy, he noted.

The chamber leader said that each campus will have a “Best Lemonade Stand” award and a “Best Entrepreneur” award.

“Part of the reason why the chamber is involved is because we’re a business organization and we want to help that next generation of potential business owners see how cool it is to start your own business,” Bondy said.

Business owners who would like to help with Lemonade Day can contact the chamber at 817-573-1622.