MATTHEW BURNETTE, Staff Writer

May 15 marks the fourth installment of the Manchester Area Chamber of Commerce’s iteration of Lemonade Day, a national youth entrepreneurship program.

Student designed and operated lemonade stands will be set up at each city and county elementary school in addition to 20 off-campus local high-traffic businesses where students will be selling lemonade.

Chamber Executive Director Katy Riddle says Manchester implements its version of the event differently than anywhere else nationally.

“We partner with both school systems in Manchester and the curriculum which includes learning how to create a business plan, learning how to market a product, learning how to identify what the price should be for a cup of lemonade, that’s all taught in the classroom, so our school partnerships are so important to make that happen,” she explained.

“The star of the show still has to be the lemonade but how they surround it is up to each student and that’s why each stand is just a little different,” added Riddle. “It’s super exciting for us.”

In addition to the curriculum, students read the book Lemonade Wars about rival lemonade stands to help them come up with ideas on how to make their stands unique.

Students in the past offered items like 3D printed key chains and lemon wax melts, as well as cookies and cupcakes.

Riddle says that the town is great at coming together to accomplish a goal and Lemonade Day is no different.

“What it ends up being is this huge celebration of community, of partnership, of education and for me as a Chamber director, it checks all of the boxes for us,” she said. “It’s just the best thing that we do.”

All of the money that is raised goes directly back to the schools in three different ways. Students share a little by identifying a nonprofit that they want to contribute to, spend a little by rewarding themselves with a party or fun activity and save a little by putting some money into the school.

In previous years, some of the money has gone to making playground enhancements as well as invested in the next year’s Lemonade Day program.

Leading up to this year’s event, a Lemonade Day Draft was held where the schools got to choose which businesses they are going to set up at in an effort to keep the event fresh and full of energy.

“I’m a big believer that you have to continue to infuse some kind of energy into events to make them relevant and fun, and so we try to do that every year, and this is such an easy program to do that with because everyone gets so excited about it,” said Riddle.

This year will also feature trophies that were designed and 3D printed by students at Westwood Middle School who worked with Kate Bryant of Re/Max 1st Realty on the project as part of their STEM program.

The trophies will be presented to community members who complete an “Amazing Race” style challenge where they go to as many stands as possible and post them on social media.

Though a fun event all around, Riddle say that the most important outcome of Lemonade Day is creating a “spark” in the students.

“It’s the spark for these kids that maybe they don’t have a parent or grandparent that owns a business or maybe they don’t have resources, but they have a talent,” she explained. “They have a spark and now they have information that can lead them to make something be possible.”

According to Riddle, if Lemonade Day passes the $20,000 threshold this year, it will mark $100,000 that the event has raised since it has been in Manchester, a large feat for a relatively new event.

“This community not only put up with us for the challenge, but they embraced it and they made it better than I ever thought it could be,” she said. “It’s probably the most difficult thing we do in terms of logistics and materials and handling and all that kind of stuff, but it’s absolutely the most rewarding.”