By Carolyn Ball and Amber Ravenscroft
West Virginia Lemonade Day is more than a program that teaches youth the principles required to start a business. It teaches students to spend some, save some and share some by giving back to their local communities.
Winfield Elementary School students participating in Lemonade Day. Photo by Carolyn Ball.
“The program is also great for reinforcing teamwork and building good social and speaking skills,” says Jessie Hescht, a fifth grade teacher at Winfield Elementary School in Putnam County.
Lemonade Day prepares students for the future by allowing them to be creative and hands-on while learning life skills and entrepreneurship. This was the fourth year Winfield Elementary participated in West Virginia Lemonade Day.
“The first year I participated in Lemonade Day, we decided we wanted to dream big and push ourselves to host a big event,” says Hescht. “I personally, as a teacher, love to challenge myself and set goals each year, and I also encourage the students to make it bigger and better each year.”
Fostering student creativity empowers youth to believe they can do anything they want if they put their minds to it. During the 2018 Lemonade Day, students learned the value of servanthood by hosting a 5k run in conjunction with their lemonade stand to benefit a student’s family in Winfield—Katie Cobb, who lost her battle with cancer in October 2017.
“She was a wonderful young lady who our community rallied behind during her courageous battle with Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” says Hescht. “She was truly a special young lady that is missed by a great many people. She and her family were able to go to Hawaii on a Make-a-Wish trip, and her two younger siblings attend Winfield Elementary. After the positive impact she had on our community, we wanted to honor her legacy of kindness by supporting a charity that helped her fulfill a dream.”
The giving part of the project helped participating students realize they are never too young to give back and help others. Lemonade Day does more than teach youth entrepreneurship—it provides opportunities to better the world one act of kindness at a time.
The program also acknowledges that every student is unique and learns in different ways.
Annie and Ben Cobb, Katie Cobb’s younger siblings. Photo by Carolyn Ball.
“This program is important because it gives students ownership of their learning,” says Hescht. “It lets them take charge and be a leader in a way that works for them. It’s important to develop those leadership skills at a young age, and Lemonade Day allows them an opportunity to do that.”
Winfield’s active participation in Lemonade Day has not gone unnoticed by the event’s leadership on a statewide level.
“I am thrilled at what Winfield Elementary School has done with Lemonade Day the past four years,” says West Virginia Lemonade Day Director Jennifer Wotring. “Each year, its event is bigger and better than the last. For the students to not only learn the concepts taught by the curriculum but to see the importance of giving back is truly what Lemonade Day is all about. I hope other school across the state follow Winfield’s lead and participate in West Virginia Lemonade Day in 2019.”
West Virginia Lemonade Day has been made possible statewide over the last four years with generous support from Vision Shared. In 2018, more than 2,000 students participated in West Virginia Lemonade Day, including Winfield Elementary students.
About the Authors
Carolyn Ball is a West Virginia Lemonade Day intern, and Amber Ravenscroft is the manager of innovation for The EdVenture Group.
