Iron Mountain, Mich. (WZMQ) – The excitement is building in Dickinson County, as the very first Lemonade Day approaches. The Dickinson County Chamber of Commerce has partnered with several classrooms in the Iron Mountain School District to launch the first ever Lemonade Day in the county. Lemonade Day will be this Saturday, May 6th. Come Saturday, there will be Lemonade Stands setting up shops all around the area, with some teams of students choosing residential areas, and others choosing to partner with local businesses to set up in front of.
The Lemonade Day program is designed to teach students about financial literacy through starting a Lemonade Stand business. Fourth graders in Mrs. Miziniak’s class have been hard at work, developing their business plans, and focusing on what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in a small community.
Anthony Lorenzoni and his team are focused on customer service, choosing to set up their lemonade stand on a busy street to attract more customers.
“Setting a goal, like what you’re going to sell. We live on a very busy street, so we thought that maybe we could get more customers,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Eva Ringel is following in her family’s footsteps and focusing on giving back to the community. Her team will be setting up their stand at the YMCA.
“We’re going to do it at the YMCA, because my dad is the CEO there. We get to donate money to businesses, or like help out,” she said.
Local lenders have even offered small loans to the young entrepreneurs to help them get started, and the students pay back their lenders before dividing and sharing profits among their teams. But the most important part of Lemonade Day is giving back to the community. Each team will be donating a portion of their profits to a local charity, with some choosing the animal shelter or the cancer closet.
Mrs. Miziniak teaches financial literacy to her students, emphasizing the importance of spending, saving, and sharing. The spend some is the investment into the business, like a local lender or a parent mentor, and the students first pay back the business or mentor that sponsored them.
“The biggest part is to donate or to share to a local charity,” commented 4th grade teacher Kaye Miziniak. “We’ve really stressed with the kids, philanthropy is not just money. It’s not just giving of your money. It’s also giving of your time, and also talent. So investing that money, the time, and talent into the community. Because that’s really what we want, is for the kids to be able to come back after graduation – eventually – be a productive member of our community, and build our community to be better.”
And on Lemonade Day, these fourth graders will be putting those lessons into practice, building a better community and learning valuable life skills along the way. Dickinson County is ready for Lemonade Day, and these young entrepreneurs are ready to shine. Look for stands to start setting up all around the city of Iron Mountain starting at around 10 am central time on Saturday.
For more information on Lemonade Day in Dickinson County, and to view a map of the local stands that will be setting up on Saturday, visit:
https://lemonadeday.org/dickinson-county-mi
For more information about the Lemonade Day program nationally, please visit:
