Riddle explained the program and her idea for its use in the classroom to Dr. Mick Shuran, Manchester City Schools\u2019 director of curriculum. Manchester is only the second community in Tennessee to participate in Lemonade Day and the first to incorporate it as a curriculum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wanted the most kids to have access to the program. Some kids don\u2019t have the resources to complete the self-guided program. This wouldn\u2019t have been possible without Dr. Shuran\u2019s work. He caught the vision and found a way to implement the program for fourth grade students at Westwood and College Street Elementary schools,\u201d said Riddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On May 19, 2022, Manchester lemonade stands, staffed by these hardworking student business owners, dotted Manchester parking lots. It was official! The date was proclaimed Lemonade Day by Manchester Vice Mayor Mark Messick. The community, schools, and area businesses came together to lend their locations, encouragement, and financial support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kari Lawson, a fourth grade teacher at Westwood Elementary School, worked on the program with students and recognized its value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe had a fantastic experience. I think it has really great potential. The conversations we had about money are ones not every kid necessarily has at home. It also gave them some things to think about when they have extra money,\u201d Lawson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manchester City Schools provided each student with the book Lemonade War, which students were excited to keep. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lawson said, \u201cIt was perfect. We read the novel first as a class. When we started doing the lessons about the money, setting up the stand, and making decisions, they had some background connections. The kids were very excited to have a copy to keep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what about the money generated from the sales? The program teaches that profits should be divided and used in three ways: reward themselves, donate to community charities, and reinvest for Lemonade Day for the following year\u2019s class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Westwood students donated $4,500, the bulk of their profits, to the Dusty Elam Foundation in honor of classmate Abe Norman. In deciding how to reward themselves, the students agreed they wanted to spread the rewards throughout the day. They further supported area businesses by purchasing Project Donuts for breakfast, J & G Pizza for lunch, and Snow Bros. shaved ice as an afternoon treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Riddle said, \u201cOne lemonade stand for one student could be the tiny seed that develops an entrepreneur that\u2019s going to make our community even better. The chamber of commerce plants those seeds. It was very challenging to implement it the way we did. We couldn\u2019t have done it without the collaboration of volunteers, area businesses, teachers, and the school system. We all worked together to make it happen.\u201d GN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DON\u2019T LET the image of a roadside lemonade stand staffed with a child dreaming of a pony fool you. Lemonade Day is the real deal. Instead of a pony, the stands\u2019 operators are dreaming of owning and managing their own business. They\u2019re making plans to give back to the community. Life skills are being impressed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11753,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/DSC_7665-1024x683.jpg\")