BY DEBBIE NAZARIAN, LEMONADE DAY NATIONAL DIRECTOR

“Kids must participate in Lemonade Day especially now because being knowledgeable about financial literacy and the many other things Lemonade Day teaches is important to being successful in life. To become an independent adult, it’s helpful to learn the lessons that Lemonade Day teaches.” Hailey Hertzman and Katie Vonder Harr, co-owners of Ooh La Lemon and 2017 Lemonade Day National Youth Entrepreneurs of the Year

In today’s blog, I want to share some statistics around financial literacy and the need to start teaching our kids at a young age. Honestly, it’s never too early to start the process.

During the rest of April, I will introduce you to some of our youth entrepreneurs who have developed businesses following their Lemonade Day experiences. I’ll also share observations and insights regarding the impact a lack of financial literacy has on our country’s economic growth and well-being.

Back in January, I had a great conversation with Charlie Hamilton, Lemonade Day National’s Chairman of the Board. Charlie has been a huge advocate of the Lemonade Day program starting when he and his wife were founding City Champions for the Lemonade Day program in Lubbock, Texas. If you’d like to see our conversation on financial literacy, click here.

Financial literacy is part of the Lemonade Day program. The lessons teach the fundamentals of budgeting, profit and loss, paying back investors, reinvesting in your lemonade stand business, saving money, and sharing profits with a cause that you love. It’s so wonderful to watch children blossom under the Lemonade Day program. For example, for some kids math was hard before Lemonade Day and then Lemonade Day made it fun and easier. As Charlie would say, “Starting a business, any business, at a young age helps kids build life skills. It doesn’t matter whether the business is successful or not, the skills acquired through owning a business will serve a youngster throughout their educational years and into adulthood.”

Several studies acknowledge why teaching children about money at an early age sets them up for successes later in life:

• Ages 8 to 14 are critical times in the development of children’s financial behavior. —National Financial Educators Council
• Adult money habits are set by the age of seven years old. – Cambridge University study
• The ‘habits of mind’ which influence the ways children approach complex problems and decisions, including financial ones, are largely determined in the first few years of life. – Dr. David Whitebread, Cambridge University
• The Gallup organization’s research on entrepreneurial aspiration is not encouraging. With diminishing ambition, out of approximately 4 million high school graduates in the U.S. every year, less than 0.25% would be considered “builders” — those contributing to the economic vitality of their local community. – Joe Daly, Gallup Senior Partner and Lemonade Day national board member

Even Charlie, who started his first business at the age of 10, shares his passion for teaching kids about money. “Financial literacy is arguably the most important skill that is missing in our kid’s lives today. It’s no coincidence that successful millionaires and billionaires had a business when they were kids. Small advantages received or gained early in life become huge advantages later in life.”

Lemonade Day’s 2020 Youth Impact Study provides a wealth of information, additional statistics and a case for youth entrepreneurship education to improve student outcomes. You can find it here.

Here is more proof on the benefits of early financial literacy education – a short list of some of our own youth entrepreneurs who took their Lemonade Day experiences and now run full-fledged businesses:

• Sabrina Roesler, 9 years old, owner of Fresh N’ Juicy and Lemonade Day Houston 2020 Entrepreneur of the Year who raises money for cancer research. Sabrina’s dad died of brain cancer when she was 6. http://www.freshnjuicy.us/
• Katie Scholl, 16 years old owner of Katie’s Fresh Squeezed Lemonade food truck – Lubbock, Texas https://www.facebook.com/katiesfreshsqueezedlemonade/
• Mikala Ulmer, 16, author, speaker and founder  of Me and the Bees Lemonade, Shark Tank winner, founder of Healthy Hive Foundation – Austin, Texas https://www.meandthebees.com/
• Rohit and Sidharth Srinivasin, 22 and 19 years old, respectively; founders of TrashBots, based in Austin, Texas; participated in Lemonade Day at ages 9 and 7, respectively. https://www.trashbots.co/
• Katie Vonder Haar and Katie Hertzman, both 15 years old; founders of Ooh La Lemon, based in Louisville, Kentucky https://oohlalemon.com/
• Ja’Qub and Jaden Anthony, 12 and 9 years old, respectively; founders of Brothers Lemonade, originally from Michigan, based in Alabama now https://www.facebook.com/JaqubJaden/

I want to end this blog with great insight from our founder, Michael Holthouse, on why Lemonade Day kids are positioned to succeed. He often says, “Most Americans consider a child’s education in terms of academics – learning math, spelling, history, science, etc. While it’s important to excel in academics, what many children don’t learn at school or from their parents is socio-emotional learning (SEL). Academic success and SEL are not the same. Real life success comes from learning things like leadership, how to communicate, how to work together, integrity, trustworthiness, etc. All children start out with the same aspirations to be successful, yet they aren’t on an equal playing field when it comes to being taught SEL assets. This gap is more acute in at-risk communities simply because adults don’t have the experiences to share this knowledge with their kids. Lemonade Day is built on Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets. The more assets one attains, the more likely that child will succeed in life. Peter Benson, founder of Search Institute, often stated that ‘parents can’t teach what they don’t know, but since Lemonade Day has more Developmental Assets than any other experiential program, it can help youth rise above their environment and be a successful contributor to their families and community.’”

Registrations are now open at Lemonade Day cities across North America. Visit https://www.lemonadeday.org/find-your-city for more information.

Thanks for reading and please feel free to share this blog with others and share my contact information, debbie@lemonadeday.org with anyone who would like to know how to help us provide our program to more children and youth or start Lemonade Day in a new city!

Thank you for reading. I welcome your comments, questions and suggestions.  For more information about Lemonade Day, please visit www.lemonadeday.org.