Kids get a glimpse of running a business

Just ask 9-year-old Bailey Varner, who spent several hours of her Friday night with four others squeezing the juice out of 400 lemons.

"It was hurtful," the Bowen Elementary second-grader said, mimicking the twisting motion.

But it paid off: She and her two friends, Tisha Betts, 9, and Amaia Jefferson, 10, raked in $336 in profits on Sunday as part of an event meant to teach children real-life business practices like budgeting, goal-setting, finding investors and the importance of a quality product.

"It shows that if you make something good, people will keep coming back," said Sefra Lopez, Amaia's mom, as a couple cars were in line at the makeshift drive-through set up at the edge of the Village Foods parking lot in Bryan.

Lemonade Day -- which is carried out in 39 cities across the U.S., including seven in Texas -- was started in 2007 by Houston resident Michael Holthouse. He founded a computer network services company that grew in six years to employ 1,600 people and drew revenues topping $100 million before selling it in 1997 to Sprint.

More than 1,100 local youngsters registered for the day, said Rose Selman, community director of Lemonade Day Bryan-College Station.

A crowd favorite was Amaia's watermelon lemonade, which won the local best-tasting lemonade award last year. Amaia, who has piqued the interest of an investor wanting to start a snow cone business, declined to divulge her recipe.

"It tastes like fresh watermelon," said Christina Mandujano, a Bryan resident, after sipping a $1.50 cup of the drink.

A portion of the stand's profits will go to Bowen's art program. The kids are encouraged to donate part of their profits, pay back their investors -- parents, in most cases -- spend a little on themselves, and save the rest.

The sense of social responsibility was apparent a mile or so away in the parking lot of Central Texas Orthotics & Prosthetics on Villa Maria Road.

There, 8-year-old twins Lexi and Lanie Davis sold pink lemonade, amid a pink stand and pink everything in honor of their grandmother and great grandmother, both of whom are battling breast cancer.

"We just wanted to help any way we could," said Lexi, a Bonham Elementary third-grader. Part of the $144 in profits raised will go to the American Cancer Society.

About the girls' effort, their great grandmother, Ann Popham, said "it's indescribable" as she choked back tears.

Kris Davis, the girls' mom, said the business skills are secondary to the day's real lesson.

"It's important that when you're making money and blessed you help out people down on their luck," she said.