By Sheila Fleming
It was a cool, sunny autumn day for shopping on the grounds of the Pease Mansion. If you had a pocketbook with a few dollars to burn, you could have handmade stationary, decorative hair feathers, chocolate brownies, and original paintings on canvas, sno-cones, dog collars, bath bombs and so much more.
The Acton Children’s Business fair is the largest entrepreneurship event for kids in Austin. This one-day fair is created and launched entirely by children.
This event, on Sat. Oct 22, was the ninth annual at the historic Pease mansion in the heart of downtown Austin on Niles road. The lawn was covered with one hundred and nineteen booths with white tents, which composed the thriving marketplace run by kids from 6 to 16. The children must create a product or service, design a marketing strategy, and be ready for customers on the day of the fair. No parents helping in any way, except to drive them to the mansion!
The Business fair is sponsored by the Acton Academy, the Acton School of Business, and the support of donors like Frost Bank and Premiere Rentals, and the hard work of many volunteers.
One of the hundreds of young entrepreneurs was Asher Kime, a student at Acton Academy, who was making a killing selling- Slime. Several young boys were in line to purchase the handmade toy product, consisting of a fun, squishy, oozy material. There was a booth run by Stella Mc Aveer and Kata Proctor, from St. Andrews school and Mathews elementary, called The Popcorn Gods. They sold many flavors of popcorn, which could be created on the spot, with sauces and spices.
There were three categories of winners; Most Innovative, Most Potential and Best Presentation, given to the age groups, 6-9 ,10-12,and 13-16. The three winners in Most Innovative were: Ma’Kyiak Herron, Derek Preheim, and Rhea Jain. The Most Potential winners in the three age groups were: Madelyn May, Issac Chew, and Cole Sayre. Finally, for Best Presentation: Sahil Jain, Regan Crabb, and Macie and Elle Chandler took home the prizes.
The motto of the Acton Academy is that entrepreneurs should be heroes and role models, and on Saturday afternoon at the Children’s Business Fair, free enterprise history was beginning to be made.