By: Briana Liles, 10 years old from Killeen, TX

The Five Hills Royalty is a scholarship pageant that does a lot of community service work and helping others. This year was my third year competing and I finally won! I was crowned Copperas Cove Pre Teen Miss Five Hills 2018! Half of my score came from my platform speech. I chose Alopecia Foundation as my platform because I am personally effected by this autoimmune disease, so I knew I wanted to help others who suffer from it worse then me. Alopecia is an autoimmune disease that attacks the hair follicles and causes hair loss. The hair loss can be in patches or to the extent of complete baldness. I lose mine in patches mainly on and around the top of my head. My mom parts my hair certain ways everyday so that people can't see the bald patches and tease me. I had never heard of lemonade day before capturing this title. The Five Hills Royalty assist with signing children up for lemonade day, so it was one of my first events as royalty. After learning about it, I thought it sounded so neat and I saw it as a perfect opportunity to raise money for my platform, Alopecia, so I asked my mom if she could sign me up and she did.

I attended the build a stand work shop at Heights Lumber and got to build and paint my own tip box for my stand. We also did a scavenger hunt which helped to teach us how to shop for lower priced items to better budget money during building our stands. We also learned to use safely gear while building our stands. I was also honored to be apart of the lemonade tasting contest. My Briana's Bountiful Berry Lemonade didn't place in the top 3, but many thought it was delicious. I got to try some other lemonades and learn that there are so many different ways to make lemonade. I really had a great time and learned so much!

My dad and his co worker helped bring my lemonade stand ideas to real life beyond my expectations. My lemonade stand had a huge crown at the top just like me. Some say it was built for a queen! It was very sparkly of course and it earned me third place in the lemonade stand contest. I was so excited!!!

Lemonade day helped me personally by teaching me that money doesn't just appear, you have to work for it. It helped me to better understand the value of a dollar. It allowed me to know what my parents meant when they say their feet hurt from working all day. It also taught me how to work well with my brothers because they helped me work my stand on Sunday because Wal-Mart was a super busy location. It taught me how to pay back money I borrowed to start up my business, to pay my brothers for their help, allowed me to donate so much to alopecia, to save some money for next year so I won't need to borrow any because I am already looking forward to that, and to spend some on myself because after setting up at three different locations and working 24 hours total between the two days I felt I deserved a little something too. How many young children can say they know how to manage their money? I am one of them now thanks to lemonade day! I also was able to tell so many people about Alopecia, I couldn't believe how many people didn't know about it. Educating them was one of my favorite parts. It helped me get out of my comfort zone and actually talk to people.

If I could give others advise I would tell them to participate next year. Decide on a stand and pick whether you want it to be simple or extravagant and have your family help make it come to life, you could even just use a table or crates. Decide what you want to get out of lemonade day, like how much you want to make for your self after you pay off your investors, save some for next year because you will definitely want to do it again,and most importantly share some with a charity of your choice because as they taught you with the program, your business wouldn't be successful without the community. Also don't limit yourself to just simple lemonade if you don't want to. There are so many flavors you can do. Do yourself a favor and if your allowed google it. Also baked goods, chips, and sweet tea go really well with lemonade! You are your own boss with this and the sky is the limit. All things are possible with hard work and dedication. I wish you all well and hope to hear your stories next year!!!

Thank you lemonade day for teaching me to be my own boss. Now I am really considering starting my own business when I grow up! You gave me the right tools to grow up to be successful and continue to rise to the top. Thank you!!