“Made from SCRATCH” lemonade and garden seed packets will be sold during Lemonade Day at Huntington’s Heritage Station Saturday, May 3, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Youth in West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension Service’s SCRATCH (Sustainable Community Revitalization in Appalachia Through Children’s Hands) project will demonstrate the entrepreneurial spirit in this local celebration of national Lemonade Day.
“Our kids are thrilled to be taking part in Huntington’s Lemonade Day celebration,” said Melissa Stewart, assistant program director at WVSU Extension Service. “Youth from all of our program sites around the city have been actively creating their business plans for weeks.”
In addition to selling lemonade, the SCRATCH kids will also be offering seed papers and seed bombs with their own homemade labels. Seed papers and bombs are flat and round compressed bundles of soil and seeds that can be planted directly into the ground.
“This is the first time our kids will be selling a fully created product exterior to the produce and flowers they’ve grown in the gardens,” said Stewart. “They’ve been involved in the entire process, clear down to product marketing and packaging.”
The SCRATCH project has been teaching youth in the area about agriculture, sustainability and economics since 2012. Participants learn about gardening, the environment and entrepreneurship by building and tending to garden sites throughout the city and harvesting their crops for sell in area businesses.
Lemonade Day exists to foster the entrepreneurial spirit in today’s youth through the time-honored tradition of operating a lemonade stand. Those registering for the event receive a backpack with educational information about operating a business, financial literacy, college readiness and life skills.
