West View Hub shows kids what can be learned from a lemonade stand

It’s something youngsters have been doing for decades — making a pitcher of lemonade, putting it on a card table set up on the sidewalk and drawing a sign to attract attention. For many kids, it’s their first lesson in running a business.

This summer, West View Hub is taking the lemonade stand concept to a whole new level. Among its new programs is something called Lemonade Stand STEAM, a fun way for kids to learn about ratios, design, budgets and all the basics for creating a kid-sized lemonade stand while honing their skills in science, art and math — and the lemonade is made from scratch.

The sounds of kids from kindergarten through fifth grade hammering away as they built their stand filled the room as volunteer instructor Jessica Futrell, who came up with the concept for Lemonade Stand STEAM, explained her approach to working with the children.

“I try and be as cross-disciplinary as possible,” she said. “I try to teach as many practical skills as possible. So, the first couple of days I taught them how to cut a lemon in half and how to claw their fingers so they wouldn’t cut themselves.”

As part of keeping an eye on the kids, the instructors limit the amount of time the children spend wielding hammers to prevent accidents.

“It’s when they start to get bored that they get dangerous,” Futrell said. “I always like to say that everything you teach to kids is like the alphabet. You never sing the alphabet just once. You sing it over and over again.”

In addition to learning what lemons are and what makes them valuable as well as how to build a lemonade stand, the kids also learn what it would cost to make their own lemonade stand in terms of materials such as wood and nails. They also learn what lemons, sugar and cups cost and how many cups of lemonade they would have to sell before they break even.

“Lemons are expensive now. How much will they be able to charge before customers decide it’s too expensive? So, it’s worth talking about. What does the market allow?” Futrell said.

So far, the Lemonade Stand STEAM class has proven to be popular.

“It’s been a little overwhelming. We have a lot more kids signed up this month,” Futrell said.

Futrell, who estimates she’s bought 20 pounds of lemons so far, has two daughters, Makenna, 12, and Cora, 8, who both volunteer to work with the kids.

“Makenna will help with the scissors (and things that might be dangerous). She got her children’s CPR last year. She’ll go around and help with the smaller kids. Cora loves to pass things out and make sure everybody has what they need. And when she’s bored with that, she doesn’t run around and make a scene, so that helps too.” she said.

“In 2019, they opened this place up and it was exactly what I was hoping for, someplace to walk to with my kids,” she said. “I love doing these kind of projects. My kids love volunteering. I’m really happy to help a place like this thrive because it’s important to me and my family. So, I’m glad to make it important to other families, too.”

All of the programs are free — including this one, elementary and middle grades book clubs, playwriting for grades 6-12 and a Youth Academy Shakespeare Summer Camp for kids in grades kindergarten through 12. It all happens in an interesting space, a former bank with a vault that’s still intact.

“This is the busiest I’ve ever seen it,” West View Hub program coordinator Jeffrey Chips said. “It’s very much driven by the kids’ interests. ‘Be guided by your own curiosity and I’ll just be here to make it all happen.’”

As he was helping to construct the lemonade stand, Emerson Lubay, 10, West View, said he was doing it for fun.

“I like that we’re building and we can use our imagination,” he said.

Another volunteer instructor, Jamie Thomas, 39, of Ross, said they were designing the stand to be collapsible so they could pack it away when it wasn’t being used.

“The kids are pretty excited about getting to use a hammer and learning about the different pieces (including hinges) as we go along,” she said. “We use wood, I bought hinges, washers, bolts, nails. This is the engineering part of STEAM. And I’ve been showing them blueprints and technical drawings that are part of this.”

Once the lemonade stand is open for business, the kids will have an opportunity to run it.

”If they ever want to volunteer to do a lemonade stand down here, now that we have one that they’ve built, they can come and help raise funds for the Hub,” Futrell said.