South Louisiana Lemonade Day

May 7th will be here before you know it, and that means South Louisiana (and other regions/cities around the country) will participate in Lemonade Day!  Bite and Booze has teamed up with Tommy's TV to get on board as an official "Media Partner" with South Louisiana's Lemonade Day!  I'm extremely excited about the opportunity to support such a great cause.  So excited, in fact, that I thought I'd share it with you!  I'd love to see some of you get involved too, especially those of you with kids out there that are ready to learn a little entrepreneurial spirit!

I recently met up with Todd Graves (Founder, CEO, and Fry Cook at Raising Cane's) and East Baton Rouge Parish's Mayor-President Kip Holden to get a little more information on South Louisiana's Lemonade Day!

Here are the main points that they wanted for me to help get out to my readers:

• Lemonade Day is open to kids of all ages
• Each child needs a Caring Adult that will help guide them through the process
• The Caring Adult can register the child at LemonadeDay.org
• Once you’ve registered online, backpacks will be available beginning this week at all  Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Greater New Orleans Raising Cane’s restaurants, MAPP Construction in Baton Rouge, Junior Achievement in NOLA, the Louisiana Children's Museum in NOLA, and Veteran's Ford in Metarie
• The backpacks include an Entrepreneur Workbook that guides the “Lemonaders” through Setting Goals, Finding Investors, Site Selection, Building a Stand, and Running a Business
• The Lemonaders are encouraged to Save a third, Spend a third, and donate a third to their favorite charity.
• Teacher’s guide and worksheets are available at LemonadeDay.org

If you're interested in learning more, here is a little bit about Lemonade Day:

What is Lemonade Day?

Lemonade Day is a nation-wide event that teaches kids the skills they need to be successful in life. Kids learn to set goals, develop a business plan, establish a budget, seek investors, provide customer service, save for the future, and give back to the community. Lemonade Day is the perfect opportunity for a community to show kids they care and train the next generation of entrepreneurs through a free, fun, engaging, and empowering activity. Last year Lemonade Day impacted more than 50,000 children nationwide. This will be South Louisiana's inaugural year, and we hope to reach as many as 5,000 children in the Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Lafayette areas.

How did it start?

Michael Holthouse, a Houston entrepreneur and philanthropist, founded Prepared 4 Life (P4L), a nonprofit that provides fun, proactive, and experiential programs infused with life skill, character education, and entrepreneurship. Inspired by the lessons he was able to teach his young daughter and her friend when they set up a lemonade stand, Holthouse launched Lemonade Day in Houston, Texas in 2007 as a community-wide, educational initiative, which has now become P4L’s number one outreach and educational priority.

When is it?

Lemonade Day will take place on Saturday, May 7th, 2011.

Who can participate?

Youth of all ages, can register to set up an official Lemonade Day stand. Kids must register with a caring adult so there are lots of opportunities for mentors and volunteers. In addition, community support from schools, youth organizations, and local businesses is essential to the success of Lemonade Day.

How does it work?

Once a child is registered they will receive a backpack with an informational workbook that outlines the steps needed to start a business: from setting a goal, creating a business plan, forming a budget, finding an investor, to saving money, and donating a portion back to the community (The children get to choose which charity to which they would like to donate a portion of their proceeds).

How can I get involved?

Everyone is welcome to be involved with Lemonade Day. We need mentors, investors, employees, and custom­ers to support participants! Sponsors and volunteers are also needed to make Lemonade Day a success! All money raised through local donations and sponsorships is used directly to support Lemonade Day in South Louisiana.