The only thing better than a cool glass of lemonade on a warm summer day is knowing that lemonade is helping to teach young minds about entrepreneurship and community involvement.

That’s just what the Manchester Chamber of Commerce’s annual Lemonade Day, returning on May 14, aims to do.

Lemonade Day is a national youth entrepreneurship program where students design and operate lemonade stands that are set up all over Manchester and Coffee County both at all of the elementary schools for each school system and at 25 local high-traffic businesses.

For the second year, stand locations were determined by the Lemon- ade Day Draft in which each school got to pick which businesses they would be setting their stands up at.

Chamber President and CEO Katy Riddle noted that while it is fun seeing the kids get excited for the event, it’s also a great way for them to make connections.

“It builds this really beautiful relationship between the school community and the business community, and through the draft, they might be partnered with somebody that they don’t have an existing relationship, but guess what, they’re going to make one and then they’re going to be connected,” she enthused. “That’s what we do best is we offer connections to programs and resources.”

The Lemonade Day program starts with a curriculum that includes key lessons which include learning how to create a business plan, learning how to market a product and learning how to identify what the price should be for a cup of lemonade.

One new addition to the 2026 Lemonade Day is a different colored cup for each school, whereas in previous years, the official Lemonade Cup was yellow.

“We also introduced a couple of years ago, which this also keeps getting better, the Amazing Race portion of Lemonade Day where we try to get people to visit as many stands as possible, and so they normally just have a stack of cups, but now they’re going to have a whole rainbow of cups if they go to a bunch of different stands,” enthused Riddle.

She also emphasized that the event wouldn’t be possible without the sponsors who support Lemonade Day, a group that’s reached its largest this year.

“That’s another way that our community and especially our Chamber community has come together to support us, and we have more sponsors now than ever,” said Riddle. “The cost of doing business and everything has gone up, so that’s what we try to do. We try to cover our costs on the front end to pay for the workbooks, the backpacks, the signage and lemonade and all of that kind of stuff, and then all of the money raised at the stands goes back to the schools.”

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.

“The idea that when you’re in the fourth or fifth grade and you’re successful it’s your job to share that success with the community around it, that’s awesome,” said Riddle, also noting that the event covers several aspects of commerce like workforce development, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and many others.

“It checks off all of those boxes of what I think a successful Chamber of Commerce should do, and it just made it a no-brainer.”

From 2021 to 2025, the student entrepreneurs involved in Lemonade Day raised over $90,000 in lemonade sales. Despite the eventual success of the event, Riddle says there was some hesitancy when she first brought the idea to the Chamber Board.

“I’ve just been so lucky to work with Boards of Directors who have allowed us to just try things, and that’s what it was,” she explained. “I had one board member in particular who will say ‘I will tell everybody I didn’t think that was a great idea, and I’ve never been more excited to be more wrong.’” “We just didn’t know, and never could I have imagined that it could become this,” added Riddle. “It’s so exciting and something people look forward to.”