Thanks you Tania-René Valdespino

Lemonade Day is held on the first Sunday of May every year since 2007.  The initiative offers k12 youth the opportunity to have hands on experience on entrepreneurship by starting, setting up, owning, and operating their own lemonade stand business.   The participants need to establish goals, find investor(s), sell their products, make profit and give a little back to the community.

On Lemonade Day, young entrepreneurs will set up their lemonade stand business at a site of their choosing, including parks, retail stores, neighborhoods and other locations. The kids get to keep the money they make and are encouraged to save a little, spend a little, and share a little with the community.

Lemonade with a twist: Kellie & Alexa Boom Boom Pow eco-stand Lemonade

With the motivation and couching of Kellie’s mother, Mimi Dinh, owner of Mikel Marketing, the girls get involved with the project.    They decided to differentiate their business by offering flavored lemonade on a eco-friendly environment.    

In addition of Strawberry and Raspberry flavors they also include a Boom Boom Pow flavor, taking advantage of Kellie’s Vietnamese background.   The TUIX of serving this traditional Vietnamese fruit was the WAO factor on their business model.  "Kellie and Alexa made the BEST lemonade with all fresh fruit and organic 0 sugar sweetener....I was very impressed.  Loved the Vietnamese fruit" said Lidya K.  Osadchey.

To made sure they really become an eco-friendly stand they put a lot of attention to details, like using carton glass and they used fresh fruit, except for the Boom Boom Pow that it is not available fresh on the local market, so they use it caned.

The girls also decided to have a feature cause: ESCAPE/Learntoparent.org, a nonprofit organization that received the benefits of their sales.

To promote their stand they take advantage of Mimi and her marketing expertise.  Few days previous to the event they email invitation using e-vite and Facebook.  The morning of the event they send reminders and RSVP request to assure their friends keep them in mind that day and stop by the stand in Rice Village.   

It is not a surprise that the girls work the details of their stand much more than the traditional lemonade neighborhood stand.   Having a coach with them really makes the difference.   "Kellie's first participation in Lemonade Day was great. She had so much fun making her own money that she can't wait to do it again.  I am so proud of her entrepreneur spirit" said Mimi.   "She didn't want to do this at first. But once we started planning marketing strategies together, we had so much fun. She came up with the idea of an eco-lemonade stand, buy 2 get 1 free, different flavors, recycle trash can. And she made all the signs herself. The experience was priceless."

Definitely this was an interesting learning process for Kellie and Alexa.  

For more information visit www.LemonadeDay.org

We invite all of you to get a discussion going.  Please submit your comments at the end of this article, Thanks.