June gloom seemed to set in. The first few days of the month were overcast, cool and foggy here in the Bay Area. But yesterday and today, simply gorgeous! In the low 70’s, sunny, just a few clouds and cool in the
evening. The weather that makes me crave a sweet cool glass of lemonade!

I grew up in Florida, the main citrus producing state in the US second to California, according to the USmakesell_p1_small.jpg Department of Agriculture. Like most kids in my neighborhood we had orange and grapefruit trees in our back yard. I never saw an orange juice or grapefruit juice stand. Lemonade stands were still the norm. You could find one on every street corner on the hottest summer days. Now I tend to see them once in a blue moon. I wish there were more, for the sake of educating kids about money.

A lemonade stand is a simple way to learn valuable lessons. Most basic money lessons can be learned at a lemonade stand. Profit, marketing, pricing, keeping an inventory, tracking income and expenses, the list goes on and on. From simple addition and subtraction of the quantity of cups and lemons at the stand, to establishing a reasonable and profitable selling price, lemonade stands can be as basic or complex as you make them!

Sunkist’s annual “Take A Stand” project is underway. They offer free lemonade stands to the first 10,000 kids to apply each year. Unfortunately, they’ve already given the free ones away for 2007 — so mark a calendar reminder in ’08. But your kids can still participate. For about the cost of a theme park admission, Sunkist sells the cardboard kits for $25 (plus $25 for shipping & handling). Better yet, teach your kids about thriftiness and build your own lemonade stand!

The Sunkist “Take A Stand” project encourages kids to raise money for their favorite charities. It encourages generosity and community service. The website offers tools including instructions to get your kids started, easy to use sales tracking spreadsheets, and even a worksheet to calculate profits. You’ll even find recipes, experiments, citrus facts, and games.

TIP: Have older children prepare snacks like rice crispy treats and jello gigglers to increase their menu of offerings and profit margin. Or provide them t-shirts and fabric pens to create shirts with the name of their lemonade stand, like uniforms.

So gather your children and their neighborhood friends for summertime fun. Help them learn valuable money lesson while having a blast running their own lemonade stand! Even if the profits the profits are small, the long term rewards will be great!