‘Lemonade Day’ Enterprise Education Underway
The inaugural Lemonade Day Taste Testing Competition was held on Monday at City Hall with Sandys Secondary Middle School taking top honours with a loquat flavored version of fresh squeezed lemonade.
Lemonade Day is a school-based enterprise education program. Since its launch in 2007 in Texas, Lemonade Day has grown from serving 2,700 kids in one city to 1 million children across North America, and has now grown to outside of the North American continent.
You can have a chance to taste this, and other great lemonade throughout the island this Friday [May 17] during Bermuda’s first Lemonade Day, as Lemonade Day stands will be open from 9:30am to 3:30pm at ten locations around the island.
Judges for the Taste Testing, representing sponsors and partners of the Youth Business-education Initiative include Commissioner of Education Kalmar Richards, Graham Redford, Managing Director, RuBIS Bermuda, HSBC’s Cyril Whitter and Clesia Pachai, Craig Tucker, Bank of Bermuda Foundation, Marisa Stones, Director of the Department of ICT Policy and Innovation, Raymond Lambert, Micro Small Medium Enterprise Director at Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, Town Crier Ed Christopher, and from the U.S. Consulate Elizabeth Baiocchi and Camille Haley.
Lemonade Day Taste Testing Competition top finishers from Sandys Secondary Middle School with partners and sponsors Raymond Lambert, Micro Small Medium Enterprise Director at Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, Cyril Whitter, HSBC Senior Business Analysis, Craig Tucker, Bank of Bermuda Foundation, Town Crier Ed Christopher, Graham Redford, Managing Director, RuBIS Bermuda, and from the U.S. Consulate Camille Haley and Elizabeth Baiocchi
In Bermuda, the Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative has introduced Lemonade Day into the middle-school curriculum at grade level M1. These are 11 to 13-year-olds who are taking the required business essentials classes. This course, along with others are being infused into the Bermuda public schools through a newly formed partnership known as The Youth Business-education Initiative, [YBeI].
HSBC Bermuda Community Investment Committee and Bank of Bermuda Foundation are the initial Lead Sponsors. Cyril Whitter, HSBC Senior Business Analyst and YEI sponsor shared, “The YBeI partnership strengthens financial capabilities, employability and entrepreneurialism, which all help the students involved develop the essential skills they will need in later life.
“This premise is at the heart of HSBC’s community investment strategy. Lemonade Day provides students with practical first-hand experience on how to create a business plan and run their own businesses successfully. The refinement of business skills in young people leads to growth in leadership abilities, teaching them to take the initiative for change in their own lives and societies that they know.”
Other partners in this public/private partnership are the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, Ignite Bermuda, the newly formed start-up accelerator, along with other members of the Bermuda business community including RuBIS Bermuda, and their affiliated distributors, who are serving as the Bermuda Country Host Sponsor for Lemonade Day.
Graham Redford, Managing Director of RUBiS Energy Bermuda commented: “I would like to say to the residents of Bermuda – please visit one of the Lemonade Day stands on May 17th and support all of our future entrepreneurs and leaders.
“Entrepreneurship has a tremendous impact on the economic development of a country, and all over the world there is increasing attention on encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation as a way to encourage economic sustainability. Entrepreneurship education benefits students from all socioeconomic backgrounds because it teaches children to think a little differently and nurtures unconventional talents and skills.”
Addressing the audience on the importance of the public private partnerships, Commissioner of Education Kalmar Richards stated, “This Youth Business-education Initiative, represented by the coming together of the private and public entities, is exactly what Bermuda needs to prepare our youth for a meaningful and productive future.
“It so wonderful to be here today with these bright young middle school students who all aspire to be entrepreneurs. This is exactly what the Lemonade Day program is designed to enable them to become.
“The skills learned in this program, and the other curriculum being introduced through the Youth Business-education Initiative, will empower our students through access and exposure to best practice enterprise education and experiences.
“This new coursework will instill employability and entrepreneurial skills, financial literacy, and other critical life skills they will need to become economically self-sufficient and productive contributors in the 21st-century economy.
“It is also designed to engage the greater Bermudian business community in supporting the efforts of the teachers and school staff in achieving this mission. And we are so pleased to have such great representation from that community here with us today.
“I would like to extend the thanks of the Department of Education to the Initiative’s Lead Sponsor HSBC, and the Bank of Bermuda Foundation for the faith they have put in this Initiative from the very start.
“Also, thanks to the partner organizations including RuBIS Bermuda who are Country Host for Lemonade Day, as well as the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation and Ignite Bermuda. We are looking forward to welcoming additional sponsors and partners are the Initiative grows in the 2019-20 academic year.
“I would like to further thank Mr. Joe Mahoney and the Youth Entrepreneurship Initiative for building this partnership with the Department of Education. And for guiding us into a new era of enterprise education for all children.”
