A young kids’ entrepreneurs club in Wrightwood, currently in its second season, is focused on learning about successfully growing their businesses while supporting community initiatives and various nonprofits.
Last year, local business owner Daniela Rey created an Entrepreneurial Track, homeschooling program where young girls ages 10-14 created their own businesses and sold handmade products at a kids’ market during the winter holiday season. With much success from the event, these young ladies were eager to continue growing the businesses they thoughtfully created, which involved creating a product, developing a logo, and building a brand.
This year, the girls were able to dig deeper into the world of business ownership by meeting once a week to discuss growth opportunities. Part of their program included reading “Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kid,” a book about a young girl who created a widely successful lemonade business. The book chronicles the journey of 4-year-old Mikaila Ulmer as she becomes the CEO of Me & the Bees Lemonade, a tasty drink now available at Target stores nationwide. Her business also includes donating a portion of her proceeds to help save bees through education, research, and protection.
The young entrepreneur club has implemented this purposeful strategy into their businesses as well, donating 10% of their profits to important initiatives they’re passionate about.
Amiele Brokaw and Evangeline Sharfe are co-owners and have created a dehydrated fruit snacks business together called Rooty Fruity. Both girls are passionate about animals and decided to donate a portion of their profits to a local animal shelter and rescue, The Littlest Pet Shop in Wrightwood.
Violet Modglin owns Bestie Bracelets, where she creates fun, colorful bracelets and donates a portion of her sales to Rock’n Our Disabilities, a nonprofit special needs foundation in Hesperia that offers social programs that Violet’s family often attends since her sister was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Reese Caudle also creates beautiful jewelry out of clay beads and donates a portion of her sales to a nonprofit in Austin, Texas, that offers equine therapy to individuals with disabilities. Reese loves horses and often incorporates her passion for riding horses into her jewelry designs.
Since they are still kids, this program isn’t all work and no play. The girls mentioned that their favorite part of the club is playing fun games and even taught me how to play “Ice Cream Empire,” a board game for kids to learn about business investments with the ups and downs of owning and expanding an ice cream shop. They are also fond of a pitching game where players “pitch” a fictional product to the other players and develop innovative solutions to improve the item they’re selling.
You can support these young entrepreneurs and their small businesses by shopping their products, now available in the newly opened Village Roots Collective at 5995 Cedar St. in Wrightwood, where the kids’ club meets weekly. Their lovingly handmade goods are on display at the local shop, which also sells herbal apothecaries, skincare, and curated gifts. Visit the shop during their operating hours, usually 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m, Thursday-Saturday.
Follow Village Roots Collective on Instagram at @villagerootscollective to see all of their product offerings and community events.
