Published: February 27, 2009 02:01 am      

Young entrepreneurs

Barrackville students taking lemonade stand to Charleston

BARRACKVILLE — Some second-grade students at Barrackville School are showing off some impressive business acumen. And raising money for the American Heart Association.

The students are in Sheila Toth’s second grade. They’re celebrating the third annual National Entrepreneurship Week by creating a lemonade stand. All the money raised goes to benefit the American Heart Association.

Barrackville students lined up around the school’s gymnasium Thursday to buy a cup of the healthy but sweet strawberry lemonade.

Today, they’re taking their show on the road. The class was one of 10 teams chosen to set up their lemonade stands in the Capitol rotunda, selling their lemonade to legislators.

Toth said the project is an important part of the year. The entrepreneurship program brings together information from across the curriculum, such as reading, math and science, and brings it together in one real-world experience.

The best part is, since nearly every child sets up a lemonade stand at some time or another, they don’t even realize they’re learning.

Lots of support from the school community helped make this second year of the lemonade stand project possible, Toth said.

“Parent involvement was key,” she said. “We couldn’t have done this without parents.”

Toth said 21 students will go to Charleston with the lemonade project today.

They’re not the only Barrackville students headed south.

Six sixth grade students will serve as honorary pages in the House of Delegates and three seventh grade students will serve as honorary pages in the Senate.

The sixth-grade students are: Skyler Brooks, Jessee Burkett, Josh Jones, Hannah Muzichuk, Addie Barber and Rachel Wiley. The seventh-graders are: Hannah Haller, Ryan Elliott and Kailee Latocha.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.