Young Copperas Cove entrepreneurs prepare for Lemonade Day Weekend May 4-5
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
This weekend, thousands of children across the country will participate in Lemonade Day Weekend, donning their entrepreneurial hats and mixing up tasty lemonade and treats for their neighborhoods and communities.
Lemonade Day Weekend will be celebrated May 4th and 5th this year, and children in the Copperas Cove/Killeen/Fort Cavazos/Belton/Temple area will be set up across in Bell and Coryell Counties with their very own branded lemonade stands as part of the Fort Cavazos Area Lemonade Day.
Sisters Mia and Riley Powell and Aurora McWhorter of Copperas Cove will have their lemonade stand, Llama Lemon, set up in the Preferred Plaza parking lot at 2210 E. Business 190. Their lemonade stand is sponsored by the Copperas Cove Leader-Press newspaper.
Mia, 10, and Riley, 8, decided on a llama theme for their stand and said the colors will be purple, pink and yellow.
The sisters decided to participate in Lemonade Day to raise money for the Cove Santa toy drive for the Copperas Cove Police Department Christmas program, said Mia.
They chose this because they wanted to help out other kids who need Christmas presents, added Riley. Last year at Christmas time, the family did a toy drive and Christmas caroling night to honor their grandfather, C.J. Sowell, also known as Cove Santa, who was battling cancer.
Llama Lemon will be open Saturday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday, May 5, from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The menu options will include regular lemonade, strawberry lemonade, sugar-free lemonade, brownie cookies, chocolate chip cookies and blueberry-lemon muffins.
Riley wanted to offer the strawberry lemonade for something different, and Mia wanted to offer sugar-free lemonade to “give their customers options.”
Other items for sale will include merchandise such as Llama Lemon stickers, collector’s cups and a mystery Pokémon card pull for $1 per card pull.
Lemonade Day teaches financial literacy, and the program encourages its young entrepreneurs to set a goal, make a plan and work the plan. The program also encourages the children to “share some”, “spend some” and “save some” of their profits.
Mia and Riley said they plan on spending some of their money to buy a suitcase for a family trip later this year.
“It makes me feel kind of excited,” Mia said about getting to be an entrepreneur through Lemonade Day.
“It makes me feel happy and excited,” Riley added.
Mia’s words of advice for other kids participating in Lemonade Day or considering pursuing being their own boss are: “Keep trying and accomplish your dreams.”
The stand map on the Lemonade Day website shows eight lemonade stands in Copperas Cove as of April 25.
In addition to Llama Lemon, there will be:
Dinosaur Lemonade, set up at Ace Hardware, selling watermelon lemonade, strawberry lemonade and regular lemonade, chips and candy.
Shiyan’s Squeeze Shack, set up at 310 Cove Terrace Shopping Center, selling lemonade, strawberry lemonade, sugar-free lemonade, lemon cups and different flavored cookies.
Galaxy Lemonade, set up at 107 W. Hwy 190, selling original lemonade, strawberry lemonade, blueberry lemonade and baked goods.
Lemonade Café at 3018 US 190 Ste. 300, selling regular lemonade and peach lemonade.
Lemon Sweetness at 202 Robert Griffin III Blvd., selling sweet lemonade, specialty lemonade and “the best chocolate chips ever.”
Rodrigo’s Rainforest Lemonade, at 2730 W. Hwy 190, selling Brazilian lemonade, regular lemonade, Pao de queijo and muffins.
The stand map can be found at: https://lemonadeday.org/fort-cavazos-area/stands-map.
Lemonade Day began back in 2007 and has since expanded to more than 84 communities in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda and South Africa. The program, which has been in the Killeen/Fort Cavazos area since 2010, teaches entrepreneurship to kids in grades Pre-K through 8th grade and focuses on goal setting, business planning, risk assessment, product development, marketing, customer service, financial management and charitable giving.