Jun. 10—ROCHESTER — It was easy for Lilah Mostert to come up with a name for her lemonade stand: She named it Rainbows and Sunshine, after her song about unicorns.
"She said, 'That would be a good lemonade stand name,'" mom Jessie Mostert said.
The almost 5-year-old set up a lemonade stand as part of Lemonade Day, an event across Rochester that aims to teach kids entrepreneurship, business skills and leadership. The program, which was brought to Rochester by the Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, has other goals of teaching financial literacy to kids and teaching responsibility and self-reliance.
The program encourages kids to save some profits, spend some and donate some. Lilah is saving up for a walkie talkie set for her and sister Gemma. It was easy for Mostert to decide where to donate some of her earnings: She'll give "to the animals" at Oxbow Park and Zollman Zoo, Jessie Mostert said.
Though Lilah is a young entrepreneur, she is still learning valuable life skills.
"She's like, 'Cars aren't stopping,'" Jessie Mostert said. "I'm like, well, we do our best to make it look exciting, with our decorations and signs, but not everyone's going to stop. We can't control if people come, so I think it teaches a good lesson in patience."
Layla Siad is also learning lessons in business. The 9-year-old is homeschooled, and mom Sarah Chounard said she tries "to teach my kids how to run and operate a business, so they don't have to answer to somebody else if they don't want to." Layla's older brother has a candy machine business.
"This is her opportunity to dabble in it," Chounard said. "It just teaches her the starting aspects of how to run a business. This is a perfect opportunity for her to get her feet wet."
Layla's lemonade stand was set up outside the Rochester Athletic Club, a prime location for foot traffic.
"I wanted her first opportunity to be successful, and for her to have a good experience," Chounard said.
Arianna Navitskas decided to create her Cat Cup Lemonade stand after her neighbors Jonathan and Alyssa planned to participate in Lemonade Day. Jonathan and Alyssa named their stand Rainbow Lemonade because they made regular and pink lemonade.
"It's cool seeing her make her own little business," Serena Navitskas said. "She plays Roblox Restaurant Tycoon, so I was like, 'It's your own restaurant.'"
Arianna's favorite part of launching her business was simple: "Making money," she said.