By Steven Gordon, Lemonade Day National President

Charlie Hamilton deserves a major “shout out” for his tireless efforts to promote the virtues and values of Lemonade Day. Some of you may already know Charlie. And for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting him, I invite you to start getting acquainted with him via these YouTube videos. Please follow these links to see and hear Charlie as he shares the Lemonade Day story with leadership guru Tony Robbins and attendees of the Tony Robbins Business Mastery in Palm Beach, Florida, just a few days ago. He also produced a video “Turning Lemons into Gold” to encourage kids and adults to embrace Lemonade Day and its importance in raising awareness of the need to nurture and sustain small business development.

Charlie Hamilton Lemonade Day Story 2018 - https://youtu.be/jpyyj-YsFqE

Charlie Hamilton's Story - Turning Lemons into Gold - https://youtu.be/7-RcKAYsOH8

Charlie was elected as the Chairman of the Lemonade Day National Board of Directors in 2016.   A successful real estate investor who is engaged in many ventures, Charlie became an entrepreneur as a youngster.  The impetus for starting his fireworks business was his desire to raise funds to buy himself a recreational four-wheeler. 

Charlie first got involved in Lemonade Day in Lubbock, Texas, six years ago when his young sons hosted their own lemonade stands. Charlie says his boys squeezed so many lemons that their hands were wrinkled; yet, they thoroughly enjoyed the experience of greeting customers, selling a product that people enjoyed, and making enough money to save some, spend some and share some with others.

Lemonade Day teaches kids how to start and run their own lemonade business with guidance from adult mentors. In 2018, our goal is to recruit hundreds of thousands of kids, kindergarten through fifth grade age to learn valuable business lessons that will serve them for a lifetime:  planning, product development, project management, marketing, promotion, sales, customer service, operations, financial management, and charitable giving – among many others.

For more information about Lemonade Day, visit LemonadeDay.org. Please consider how you and other champions of youth entrepreneurship can become part of our Lemonade Day program. We are seeking volunteers, mentors, corporate and individual sponsors, and providers of in-kind products and services throughout the United States, Canada, South Africa and other countries. I welcome your comments, suggestions, and questions anytime.  I can be reached at steven@lemonadeday.org.

About Lemonade Day

Founded in Houston in 2007 by Michael and Lisa Holthouse, Lemonade Day is a non-profit organization dedicated to teaching every child across North America the business and financial skills that are the key ingredients of entrepreneurship. By learning these skills early in life, children will be better prepared to be successful, financially healthy adults. Through our fun, hands-on program Kids K-5 are empowered to start their very own business—a lemonade stand—and experience the feeling of earning real money, using 100% of their profit to spend, save and share based on their own goals.

Lemonade Day is hosted in 62 cities throughout the United States. Over the past 10 years, we have served more than 1 million kids in our kid entrepreneur programs.

Visit LemonadeDay.org to learn how to participate in Lemonade Day in your city.