What do Lemonade and “Fireball” Candy have in common? FUN, FUN AND MORE FUN! On Saturday January 28th at Dorton Area in Raleigh, North Carolina the “Y” Guides for the YMCA of the Triangle hosted the “World’s Largest Fireball Carnival”. It was everything you and your family could ever want—mechanical bull riding, balloon animals, a rocking climbing wall and inflatables galore! Not to mention there was a live DJ, bubbles, countless games and of course, “Mr. Lemonhead” himself!

This was the Triangle’s first event to host Mr. Lemonhead in support of Lemonade day 2012! Kids and parents had the opportunity to shake hands with the “Legend” himself while they received information about registering for this event. Mark your calendars! On May 5th the YMCA of the Triangle is getting geared up to equip and empower some 5000 kids across our area to open their stands and have an experience they won’t soon forget!

I had a lemonade stand when I was a kid.  Many, actually.  I remember how I felt when I made my first dollar.  Not the dollar I got from my first allowance or from the Tooth Fairy, but the dollar that came from my own enterprise, my own first business: a lemonade stand.  It was exhilarating! It was transformative.  I was developing what would turn out to be a life-long passion for entrepreneurship.  And it started when I was 10.

Nov. 14-20 is Global Entrepreneurship Week, a period when entrepreneurship is highlighted and celebrated around the world.  Entrepreneurs fuel the economy and many, like Henry Ford and Steve Jobs, even change the world.

Yet people are worried about where the next great innovator will come from.  I think they are right to be worried.  Our children don’t grow up thinking, “I want to be an entrepreneur.” They aren’t being taught, explicitly, to take risks, think big, make bold choices and go it alone if that is what it takes.

I’m spearheading a Greater Indianapolis Area initiative, called Lemonade Day, that provides kids the opportunity to experience entrepreneurship by learning how to start, own and operate their own lemonade stand business.  In 2010, our first year, more than 7,400 kids participated, and this year 10,000 kids got involved.

First, the child sets a goal: “I want a Lego set. Or a bike or an Xbox 360.” And after weeks of preparing to start his lemonade business, he opens up shop, sells lemonade, turns a profit, saves a little and shares a little and then he buys a Lego set for himself.  The next year, the kid reinvests his earnings into the lemonade business and buys more Lego sets.  Years later, this same kid creates a new toy product that is better than Legos and has the courage to start a new company because he is viscerally experienced at entpreneurship.  That’s the experiential trajectory I’m looking for with Lemonade Day.

We should be teaching our kids that it’s possible to control your own destiny. To have a great idea, to feel so passionately about it that you’re willing to take risks – maybe risk everything – to pursue it and make it happen.  Can you imagine if Oprah Winfrey decided to be a schoolteacher or if Bill Gates became an engineer?  What if they didn’t have the courage to strike out on their own? Or maybe a more fitting question is this: What about all of the other Oprah Winfreys and Bill Gateses who never were because those early forward-thinking, far-reaching ideas weren’t appreciated and nurtured?

My goal is to expand Lemonade Day so that every child in our community is exposed to entrepreneurship at an early age.  Join me in inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.  I need parents, teachers and community leaders to join me in encouraging kids to sign up for Lemonade Day.  Most of all, I need entrepreneurs and other business leaders to join me as sponsors and in expanding this initiative.  We need to lead the way.

We’re ramping up for Lemonade Day 2012.  I can’t wait to see what these kids do.

• Scott Jones is an inventor and entrepreneur from Carmel, IN.

This article first appeared in the IndyStar printed edition on Saturday, November 12.

Next week is Global Entrepreneurship Week, the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare … and we’re celebrating!

YOU’RE INVITED!

Now – Monday! Make a video or picture of yourself saying:

• I am an entrepreneur OR
• Thanking an entrepreneur in your life

Post your video to YouTube or photos on facebook and share with us – or email mandy@lemonadeday.org – and be apart of our video!

Tuesday! Join a LIVE CHAT with GenConnect and Michael Holthouse

Lemonade Day and genConnect host live chat with Michael Holthouse on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. EST/12 p.m. PST during Global Entrepreneur Week

On November 15 at 3 p.m. EST/ 12 p.m. PST,  join rockstar entrepreneur  Michael Holthouse on genConnect.com in a live chat celebrating and encouraging entrepreneurship. Students, parents, teachers, retirees, business execs, moms, dads and people of all generations are invited to participate in this live, interactive conversation entitled “Entrepreneurship: Pass It On.”  Audiences will learn more about starting their own businesses and how to thrive through hard work and determination.

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE LIVE CHAT, SIMPLY SIGN UP FOR GENCONNECT.COM AND YOU’LL BE SENT AN EMAIL REMINDER.

BOOKMARK THEIR PAGE as the party starts here on Nov. 15, 3 p.m. EST/12 p.m. PST

“Getting to talk directly to participants and future entrepreneurs is one of the coolest things. These kids are brilliant and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Global Entrepreneurship than rallying with the future innovators, change-makers and entrepreneurs – the next generation of leaders in America and the World.” Michael Holthouse

We just launched a new website! Check it out www.lemonadeday.org and join the Community. See how the Lemonade Day Community can make entrepreneurship click for you. The Lemonade Day Community makes it easy to stay connected anywhere, anytime. Get the dish on Lemonade Day in your city, talk to those in the know, meet other entrepreneurs, caring adults, volunteers and supporters. Join the movement that’s teaching the nation!

So excited about the news that Girl Scouts are adding badges like Money manager, Budgeting, Financing my future, Good credit, and Philanthropy. From Forbes today – and they point to some other great ways to get kids interested in finances like Junior Achievement’s camps, and the iPhone app Kids Money. Of course, I’d add Lemonade Day to the list as well …

So I began to ask, “Where were you on 9/11?”

Julie Eberly, Chief Expansion Officer
“On my way to work when the news story first hit , then at Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston where I gathered with our Refugee Services staff, most of whom had actually come to the US as refugees. One dear friend, who was from Bosnia, had expressed through sobs that she was supposed to be safe here! It was sobering. That evening I went for a long and solemn run, and then we gathered at our church to pray.”

Esther Lee, National Project Coordinator
“I was in my 9^th grade biology class, my teacher had the TV turned on (no sound) when my friends and I walked into class and we didn’t know what was going on. We saw the buildings and smoke coming out but didn’t understand. Some kids were pulled out of class and taken home and my best guy friend was worried because his parents were on a flight but he didn’t know any details so I worried for his family all day. Also remember going home and watching the news all night with my parents ”

Shannon Bishop, Vice President of Education
I was running late for work and getting ready. The Today Show was on and when the second plane hit the tower, I called the office and told them I wasn’t going in. I got back in bed and stayed there, transfixed by images beyond my comprehension, chanting the mantra, “May the world be full of loving kindness. May all beings be peaceful and at ease.” I was alone and wanted to have everyone I loved in the world around me. I had to call my friends and family and make sure they were okay, and of course they were (none in NYC, or at the Pentagon or on a plane over PA). My heart broke, and broke open with sorrow for those whose loved ones died. And my heart broke for all of us –  our country and the world. I knew it was a big moment … huge. Bigger than Columbine. Bigger than the Murrow building. Bigger than the Challenger. Even bigger than the JFK assassination. I knew that the death and destruction would not stop once the dust settled on the towers and the Pentagon. I couldn’t get T.S. Eliot out of my head-

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends

But it was ending with a bang, not a whimper. And we were the “hollow men, the stuffed men, forming prayers to broken stone.”

Kasey Hess, National Project Coordinator
“I was in math class and our teacher turned on the tv just in time to see the 2^nd plane hit.  We were only in 7^th grade and I remember we didn’t quite understand what was going on, we just knew it was bad.”

JC Perez, Houston Executive Director
“I remember this day as if it was yesterday!  At the time I was the  Texas Regional General Manager for Radio Unica Radio Inc and I was driving into the my office at the Arena Towers.  I was listening to my morning news team do their normal morning newscast and they interrupted regular programming with a special report about the first plane hitting the North tower.  About 10 minutes later my cell phone rang and it was my boss whose office was in midtown Manhattan and he told me what was going on and that I had to gather all of my staff in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and the Valley on a national conference call as soon as possible so that we could discuss our plan as a media company and how we were going to inform our public without causing more alarm.  When I got to my office I walked into the control room of the radio station and all of my staff was  there and in tears. We were just informed of the second tower being hit and of the other two planes that had gone down.

It felt as if we were in a movie and everything was happening in slow motion.  There was not a dry eye in the house and then I got a call from the building management telling me that we had to evacuate the building ASAP because there was a government office in our building and nobody knew if government buildings were targets across the country.

I gathered my staff in the conference room and told them they had to leave until further notice and that we would automate our station programming to run our news feed from Miami.

The eeriest part of this whole situation is that I was scheduled to be in New York that week in meetings with the top Hispanic advertising agencies and of course my business trip was cancelled.  I went to New York in late October and when I arrived I felt like I was in a foreign country.  My hotel was at 26^th and Park Ave and was blocked off by army trucks checking each vehicle with mirrors underneath and checking for explosives.  On the wall across the street from my hotel there were pictures of thousands of missing persons-this was too much for me and I remember streams of tears coming down my face.  How can something like this happen in my hometown that I grew up in?

I still get shivers down my spine and teary eyed to this day talking about it.  That fateful day in September changed my world and the world of my friends, family and colleagues forever.”

Debbie Nazarian, City Director
“I was driving to work that morning and heard the news on the radio. I rushed to a tv when I got there and watched with my co-workers the horrible footage of the plane flying into the tower and the towers coming down. We all watched in complete silence.”

Aimee Friend, Houston Development Associate
“I was driving to work and heard it on news radio.  What I remember most about learning that the second tower had been hit is that Peter Jennings’ voice cracked and he had to pause for several moments as he was describing what he was seeing live.”

Where were you?

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?  Blue Bell Dessert Trio – homemade vanilla ice cream with a swirl of fudge with chunks of cookie dough AND brownie.

How old is the oldest pair of shoes in your closet?   Like 7 years old?  They are amazing! They’re black and white patterned flats and I’ve worn them so much there are holes in the heels and the soles are starting to fall off but I have declared I will keep them ‘til the day that I die.

What movie do you know every line to?  You’ve Got Mail!

Favorite moment while at Lemonade Day? My first Lemonade Day.  It was really cool to see everything that we’d been working for come to life.

And we support them. We support all lemonade stands. We support every youth in America. And we agree, “Selling lemonade is not a crime.”

The lemonade stand is an iconic symbol of the American dream and the foundation of free enterprise. For many kids, operating a lemonade stand is their introduction to entrepreneurship. It teaches youth financial responsibility, the value of hard work, the joy of achieving a goal, making money, and the financial freedom to make their way in the world.

Of course government has a critical role in protecting the health of consumers. Food safety is a serious issue. Municipal health departments are essential in regulating professional food businesses that are run by adults. However, applying the strict regulations to lemonade stands is taking it too far. Let’s not let a law designed for food stores and restaurants get in the way of youth learning valuable lessons. Health inspectors should be empowered to use personal discretion when it comes to enforcing regulations on children’s lemonade stands.

John Sheptor, president of Imperial Sugar, supporting a lemonade stand at Discovery Green. photo credit: Elaine Mesker-Garci/EMG Images

Lemonade stands are childhood rites of passage. What is the risk to society if a young person sells lemonade on the corner. If health department officials shut down stands, we risk the unintended consequence of crushing the entrepreneurial spirit of the next generation. What does this teach children about government? In these times our country needs innovators and risk takers. Show your support. Buy a cup of lemonade from a young entrepreneur tomorrow.

And if your lemonade stand is open for business tomorrow, leave us a comment on where you are so we can support you!

So … who’s the winner of our first ever Witty Words Wednesday?

Brian I. Block: “All those in favor of creating cars that use fewer fossil fuels and more lemonade, say aye!”

With a close 2nd tie by Merritt Shivitz’s “Their future is so bright they need shades” and DeNae Femme Fatale’s “We’re getting Lemonade Wasted!”

Thanks for playing along! Check back next week on our facebook to see if you can claim the throne of Wittiest in All the Land!