By Steven Gordon, Lemonade Day National President

What do you remember about your first experience with money?  Perhaps a benevolent grandparent slipped you a few coins during a Sunday afternoon visit.  Or if you were lucky, maybe you got a greenback – or two or a few. Do you remember how great that felt? How fun it was to hold that money in your hands and ponder what to do with it? Perhaps you hastily ran to stash it in a safe place – a dresser drawer, a shoebox, a piggy bank, a coffee canister or glass jar with a lid?  Perhaps you remember venturing out with your mom or dad to the supermarket, local dry cleaners, florist, car wash, feed store, department store or some other shop where your responsible adult chaperone handed over cash or a credit card to pay for services or goods that were going home with you that day. Regardless of the exact scenario in the early, impressionable days of your childhood, you felt special and important. Why? Because you or your family had some money, and money helped in some way, right? Life in that moment was good.

Now, think about a time when money was not readily available during your childhood. Maybe you wanted a candy bar, an ice cream treat, a pet turtle, a bird, a puppy, or a new toy or game. Maybe the responsible adult in your world either caved and gave that item to you or advised you that you would have you wait until another time – he or she had had enough of buying things for you for now. Maybe that adult advised you to save your own money and buy this coveted living thing or item yourself.  Or maybe your family experienced hardships that led to money scarcity… times, when buying groceries, repairing the family vehicle, or buying school uniforms or supplies, bring back painful memories of fear and lack.

While these are some simple examples of early encounters with personal financial transactions, you get the point. Money matters. We need money to care for ourselves and people who matter to us.

Those involved with Lemonade Day know that our program means much more than rallying thousands of kids in the United States and Canada to set up lemonade stands and sell sweet, flavorful liquid happiness. Lemonade Day teaches young kids of kindergarten through middle school age lessons that will empower them for life. Youth who register to participate in Lemonade Day with guidance from adult mentors learn valuable leadership and entrepreneurship skills such as business planning, product development, site selection, risk management, marketing and promotion, sales and customer service, financial management, and charitable giving.

Lemonade Day has been fortunate to have garnered the support of banks a­­­­­nd financial institutions that are local, regional, or national in structure and presence. From Amegy Bank during Lemonade Day’s formative years in Houston to more than 30 banking and financial institutions of varying sizes (Amegy, Alpine State Bank, Bank of America, BBVA, Cadence Bank, IBC Bank, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and many others).  Lemonade Day kids are clearly getting lots of positive reinforcement related to money and investing.  These organizations have stepped up and spoken up to assist Lemonade Day leaders in assisting young people and their family members with learning more about the value of money, holding micro lending­­­­­ events, teaching Lemonade Day financial curriculum and helping them to set up bank accounts, and investing for the long haul.  With the generous assistance of these and countless other sponsors, Lemonade Day has engaged more than 1 million kids since the program’s inception in 2007.

Now, we are seeking a national banking or financial institution to partner with our Lemonade Day youth entrepreneurship program leaders to expand this positive Lemonade Day experience to many millions of kids throughout North America over the next several years. We have an ambitious goal of engaging 250,000 or more adult mentors that will help young business owners host an equal number of lemonade stands by 2023.  Some of these young people need seed money to buy their ingredients and build their lemonade stand. All of them are encouraged to open savings or checking accounts, which means that they need a parent or guardian to assist them with managing those accounts. 

My team and I are ready and able to develop a mutually beneficial partnership agreement with the mission of “Building the Future and Stirring Up Success.” If you have a positive relationship with a bank or other type of financial institution, or if you are willing to broker an introduction or open a dialog about pursuing a national partner, then please contact me at steven@lemonadeday.org.  I am available by phone or web meeting, or in person as need and opportunity warrant.

Thank you in advance for your continued involvement. Please share this blog post with your network.

ABOUT LEMONADE DAY

Founded in Houston in 2007 by Michael and Lisa Holthouse, Lemonade Day is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship.  By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults.  Through our fun, hands-on program, kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100% of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.

Lemonade Day is hosted in 66 territories in North America and is growing. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million kids in our youth entrepreneur programs. Within the next five years, Lemonade Day leaders estimate that 250,000 mentors and millions more kids will be hosting lemonade stands in North America and on other continents throughout the world.