On the hottest of summer days, there’s nothing like a refreshing glass of lemonade to help beat off the heat and business was booming at the Nutley Town Hall’s very special lemonade stand. Saturday morning, May 11th, junior entrepreneurs between grades 4-8 were invited to learn how to run their own stand this summer. 

Commissioner John V. Kelly, III, Nutley Department of Public Affairs and Health, in partnership with Commissioner Tom Evans, Nutley Department of Revenue and Finance, joined by Nutley’s Licensed Registered Environmental Health Specialist, Robert DeBello, Jr and Stephanie Santana, Nutley’s Chief Financial Officer, taught participants all the basics when it came to creating a successful business. 

“Today we hope to encourage kids to start thinking about small business ideas because Nutley is a great community for small businesses,” said Commissioner Kelly. “Commissioner Evans, I, and the rest of the Board of Commissioners work together to make this a hospitable community for business. We hope to get you guys thinking that one day maybe you’ll want to be an entrepreneur and start your own business and be the next Elon Musk. It all starts here at the lemonade stand.”

The one-hour event went over the basics when it comes to determining costs, budget, break-even prices, and profit. By getting to simulate their own lemonade stand, kids got to practice the skills first-hand in seeing how much money it really took depending on the labor and ingredients required. By the end of the day, all in attendance received a Junior Food Handler’s Certificate as record of their completion of the course as well as qualifications in kicking off the summer with their own stand.

“When you think about a business, you need to think of both sides,” said Commissioner Evans,  “including how the process works. Making sure you are careful with money, so that when you are finished you can feel really good about the fact that not only did you have fun but you made a profit. I always told my own kids and will share with you to take a little bit of that and put it away for savings when you’re older.”

The Second Annual Lemonade left all feeling accomplished and got to “cheers” the afternoon with their own handmade lemonade.