INNISFAIL- It was a couple of years ago when local realtor Darcy Blair thought about pitching the Town of Innisfail an idea about creating an eye-popping lemonade stand for kids that could be signed out and give the young a taste of entrepreneurship.
“Kids could sell lemonade and try to make some extra money and have one of the best locations in the Town of Innisfail for traffic,” said Blair, an associate broker and manager at RE/MAX real estate central alberta.
The idea fell through but now Blair is back with something more ambitious. He’s now leading a local initiative relying on a proven American-created non-profit program that features an innovative annual Lemonade Day. Innisfail’s first is set for Sept. 4.
The free community-wide educational program created by American entrepreneur Michael Holthouse in 2007 has a mission to inspire today’s youth to become the business leaders, social advocates, community volunteers and forward-thinking citizens of tomorrow.
Now held annually in dozens of North American communities, the program teaches kids how to start, own and operate their businesses through a strategic 14-step process and with the simplest of entrepreneurial vehicles – a lemonade stand.
“To me it embodies what I think us as adults should instill in our children,” said Blair, a father of a 22-year-old “very entrepreneurial-minded” student at the University of Victoria.
Blair said Innisfail’s Lemonade Day will target the one-day of sales for kids from grades 3 to 5, although all others are invited to participate. He said the goal is to have 20 different lemonade stands throughout the town on Sept. 4. The hope is that local businesses will sponsor a young entrepreneur, who will be receiving a backpack and a resource book. Each youth will be given the opportunity to put their lemonade stand in front of their sponsor’s business. However, he emphasized participating young entrepreneurs can also put their stand wherever they like, including in residential areas, and even in front of their own home.
By Sept. 4 all locations will be posted on a Lemonade Day website map, making it handy for citizens to find them.
“Someone on September 4 can click on the website and see where all the lemonade stands are and hopefully members of our community will just hit four or five, or all 20 of these,” he said, adding he will have one of the lemonade stands in front of his RE/MAX office near Bankers Corner.
“Obviously we are going to talk to them about the programming that goes along with it,” said Blair, noting each participating youth will also be offered entrepreneurial tutoring, either in person or online. “This year might be a little bit quick but we are going to do our best as a group to get them all together, or at least go onto an app on their phone and they can download different programs, and that will help go through it that way.”
Blair said participating youths will go through pre-Lemonade Day business planning, such as setting budgets, where their profits are coming from, as well as how to best serve customers, repay investors and giving back to the communities.
“We are going to encourage them to give a portion of their profits back to non-profit, and to start that wing of their mindset,” said Blair. “It’s not 100 per cent mandated that they have to go forward and have to give back. Of course, we are going to encourage them because the more they give back the more it builds community, and it does help the less fortunate.”
Blair said if interested youth “catch fire” about this year’s Lemonade Day initiative it could be expanded longer than one-day in 2022, even up to 20 days.
“We will still have our concentrated one Lemonade Day that we really focus on but we encourage them to become entrepreneurs," he said. "It’s incredible that some of the people who started out on Lemonade Day in the United States have presented other entrepreneurial projects.”
For more information about how to be a participant or volunteer in Innisfail’s Lemonade Day on Sept. 4 go to the website at lemonadeday.org/Innisfail. For businesses wanting to pay for a sponsorship or donate to the event he or she can come to Blair’s RE/MAX office at 5008 – 50th Street or at The Coffee Cottage at 5112 – 49th Ave.
