2018 Embrace Spectacular: Lemonade Stands for Charity

By: Tessa Kolaczenko, Talent Development Intern

This year’s Embrace Spectacular — our version of Take Your Kids to Work Day — paved the way for the future leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow. On Thursday, June 28, 2018, about 40 children learned about what goes into running a business through creating their own lemonade stand. Guest speakers and team leaders taught the kids about sales, marketing, accounting, leadership, and creative thinking.

The children were divided into 4 teams, but each group had the same goal: to raise the most money for a charity of their choice by working together to create and promote their lemonade stand.

Embrace values each individual’s talent and prides itself in helping to develop one’s abilities both professionally and personally — so it was easy to see how that translated into empowering each child to bring out their natural talents and passions.

• The children that loved all things artistic were encouraged to take the lead in the marketing portions of the day. Each group was so innovative in the way they designed their marketing flyers and decorated their stands to get the customers’ attention.

• The kids that enjoyed math and working with numbers were the ones to step up with the accounting and budgeting process of the lemonade sales. They determined what products would be most cost-effective for making a profit.

• During the afternoon lemonade sales, some of the kids were really able to show their talents by communicating well with their teammates and the employees at Embrace. They were out there promoting and being cheerleaders for their teams.

All of the children were passionate about the charity they were raising money for, and it definitely showed. Some of the kids were so into the activities that they even started giving themselves titles like “Sales Manager” or “Secretary of Sales”! At the end of the day, it was amazing to see how many employees came down to Hutchings Hall to support the kids and it proved that their effort had paid off.

These kids achieved so much in only one day. They learned to work as part of a team and that there are many moving parts that must all come together in order to be successful. Even though the goal was to raise the most money, it wasn’t all about competition. During the closing team discussion, they also realized that it felt good to help others in the community.

Embrace values its local area and helping others in need provides fulfillment to those that work here. Helping the community is a way in which we can all connect and make an impact for the greater good. Setting that kind of example for younger generations can make a difference in the way they look at corporate culture and the way they may run a business someday.

At the end of the day, donations were made to four local charities:

• $192.14 was donated to the Confetti Foundation

• $212.20 was donated to Animal Rescue Rhode Island

• $266.60 was donated to the RISPCA

• $1,330.54 ($330.54 was raised and the top team had an additional $1,000 donated from Embrace) was made to the Ronald McDonald House.

It was an incredible day for some truly talented kids!