When some hear Rainbow Road, they might think of the rainbow-colored race track in the Super Mario Kart game.
Last Wednesday, Rainbow Road took on a different flavor as it was the theme of a lemonade stand at Girls Inc. of Jackson County in Seymour.
A group of kindergartners and first-graders was selling blue raspberry and regular lemonade with optional strawberries or sour belt candy added in.
They were one of four groups of girls that participated in the nonprofit organization’s annual lemonade stands project.
Once a week during the summer, the groups learned about the lemonade stands program from staff members. They talked about entrepreneurship and what is needed to run a business. They decided what type of lemonade they wanted to sell and figured out what they needed and how much to buy. Then they chose a theme for their booth and decorated it and decided what they would do with the profits.
The stands were set up on different days last week.
Besides Rainbow Road, the other themes were Carnival Lemonade, Lemonade Refreshers and Tropical Lemonade.
Kelly Royer, program director for Girls Inc., said each group decides together what they want their profits to go toward.
“Some groups have opted to have a special lunch and go to our gymnastics center,” Royer said. “Some groups are having an ice cream party, and some are donating most of their profits.”
She said Lemonade Day is an entrepreneurship program that’s offered to Girls Inc. affiliates. Girls Inc. of Jackson County has been delivering this program for more than eight years.
“Each group spends every Friday morning for five weeks working on their business,” Royer said. “On week six is when they open their lemonade business.”
On Monday, the Girls Inc. Teens, grades 7 and up, ran the carnival theme stand; Tuesday was grades 4 and 5 (Butterflies) with their tropical theme; Wednesday was the kindergartners and first-graders (Fireflies) on Rainbow Road; and Thursday, the second and third grade girls (Ladybugs) worked at their refresher stand.
Royer said on Friday, each group announced how much they had made and how much profit each one accumulated after expenses. The profit was GITs – $394; Butterflies – $225; Fireflies – $229; and Ladybugs – $275.
Teen helpers on Wednesday afternoon were Kaleigh Maschino and Kylei Nichols.
Nichols said she was helping with the stands every day, all day.
“I’m helping with the kindergarten and first grade group and working with Kaleigh, the program leader, to see what she needs for me to do,” she said.
Maschino said the Fireflies group wanted to have a pizza and ice cream party with their profits and donate the rest.
“The girls get to pour the lemonade for their family members when they stop by,” she said.
First-grader Melissa Miranda, dressed in a blue princess dress, was a part of the Fireflies group. When her dad, Cutberto Miranda, stopped by the Rainbow Road stand, she asked him what size drink he wanted and then filled his order.
First-grader Calla Kasting said she liked selling the lemonade at the stand and was taking turns with the other girls, waiting for people to stop by.
The Ladybugs opened up their Lemonade Refreshers stand on Thursday morning with teen staff member Kendal Robertson helping out.
Robertson said the girls decided they would like to have a Chick-fil-A lunch and a gymnastics party with their profit.
The girls waited on James Foster, who is an employee with the Seymour Department of Public Works.
“I just stopped by to get some lemonade for me and my co-worker and to pick up the trash since they’re on our stop,” Foster said. “I think the lemonade stand is pretty neat, and I was getting pretty thirsty.”
Fourth-grader Elina Aguilar was at a table telling customers the prices of the lemonade and taking the money.
Third-graders Lily Bekowski and Nora Bowling were taking turns pouring lemonade and asking customers if they wanted a paper umbrella in their drink.
Bekowski said during the summer, girls learned how to build a lemonade stand and came up with the name for their group.
”My favorite part is pouring the lemonade,” she said.
Bowling said her favorite part was serving lemonade to her family and meeting new people.
Girls Inc. Athletics Director Missy Perry said she thinks the benefits of the projects are that the girls learn how to manage a business.
“They learn about how to price items to sell their products, profits versus sales and also that just maybe they needed to price their product a bit higher than they did,” Perry said. “Kelly heads this up every year and wonders if we think that the girls are tired of this and may not want to keep it up. Some girls start here in kindergarten and are still coming.”
She said this makes eight years for some girls to have participated in the lemonade stands program, and she thinks all of the girls enjoy selling the lemonade, making signs and buying products.