When kids were asked what they were going to do with the money they earned, some replied they were going to “spend it!” Others decided to give the money they raised to their church. The main point is that the children learned how to work for money and learned that they had the freedom to decide what they were going to do with the profit they earned. They were allowed to feel grown up and allowed a taste of the real world. This type of experience excites children and allows them the freedom to make decisions for themselves.

Sunday May 6 was Lemonade Day in 31 cities across America and Canada, including Bryan and College Station. When Lemonade Day first began, it included about 2,700 kids. Now, more than 120,000 kids across these 31 cities participate in the day. Lemonade Day was started as a program to give experience to children, teaching them entrepreneurship skills. Kids learn to plan, start, and operate a business through their experiences with Lemonade Day.

Kids were offered the chance to mark their lemonade stands on a map online that would be available to the community on Lemonade Day. The stand locations were given the opportunity to be published not only to the online map, but also to Facebook, Twitter, and via email.

The goal is to prepare children to be empowered future citizens. Upon registering, each child received a backpack that contained an Entrepreneur Workbook, teaching them 14 lessons that are a central part of Lemonade Day. They learned how to create budgets, how to set profit-making goals, how to serve customers, how to repay investors, and how to give back to the community. In addition to learning how to perform these skills, they also learned the value of the skills. The children are also taught how to set goals for themselves, how to problem solve, and how to gain self-esteem which will aid them in their future endeavors for success.

On Lemonade Day, children are allowed to keep all of the money that they make and are encouraged by adults to spend some of their money, save some of it, and share some of it with others less fortunate.

Lemonade Day teaches kids a very special and specific set of skills from financial literacy and economics, to college readiness and career, to life skills and personal development, and of course academics. The financial literacy and economics that the kids learn include subjects like capital equipment and consumables, supply and demand, credit, debt, gross and net income, marginal utility, return on investment and compound interest. To prepare kids for college, they are exposed to critical thinking and collaboration, interest in attending college, civic responsibility, customer service, teamwork and problem solving and presentation skills and design. Children also learn life skills and personal development such as leadership, the belief that attaining goals is within reach, personal productivity, self-direction and time management, social responsibility and charity, high order thinking and social skills and self confidence. The day also increases the kids’ academic capacities such as math calculations, reading and interpreting data, and oral and written communication.

Lemonade Day offers an online website for kids to register and sign up on. Lemonade Day sponsors and partners include many businesses and individuals in the area, including Dick and Linda Lester, Lenae Heubner, Atmos Energy, Double Dave’s Pizzaworks, James and Paula Lancaster, Research Valley, Len and Nancy Berry, Mathnasium, Caldwell Companies, AgniTEK, Wells Fargo, Research Valley Funds, Blue Baker, Documation, Copy Corner, Kroger, Ecolyse, Brazos Valley Small Business Development Center, College Station ISD, Bryan Broadcasting, The Eagle, Chamber of Commerce, Bryan ISD, Sideshow Creative, the City of College Station, KBTX Media, Brazos Monthly, KAMU, Mays Business School, AbouTown Press, KAGS, and the City of Bryan.

If you like to help out with and work with children, then you may want to consider becoming a volunteer for Lemonade Day. Volunteers are necessary to run Lemonade Day and are needed to stuff backpacks that are given out to the children to teach them entrepreneurship, spread the news about Lemonade Day by distributing materials to local schools and youth organizations, register youth to participate at special events going on in the community, and lastly you can help out by blogging, tweeting, or sharing information about Lemonade Day online or through Facebook!

PS -  Susan Hilton is Bryan College Station, Texas’ real estate specialist in foreclosure sales and real estate agent career building so if you need help – CALL!             979-219-3970

From 5-10 p.m. downtown Bryan offers First Friday, an event for the cities of Bryan and College Station and surrounding areas to join together and have an enjoyable evening. Whether your evening consists primarily of dining out and visiting with friends or bringing the kids along for a carriage ride and movie, the choice is yours.

Madden’s Casual Gourmet is a popular favorite spot for dinner. All of their food is made from scratch, including every soup and mayonnaise on the menu. Chef Madden is constantly seeking to widen the variety on his menu and challenging himself to find additional flavorful combinations for customers. Madden’s uses top quality products and their presentation of food is nothing short of artistic. The restaurant strives to provide only the freshest ingredients for their customers. Relationships with local producers and manufacturers, as well as a garden of their own, provide Madden’s with top quality food. Madden’s also hosts a movie night for families on First Friday. Movies such as Alice in Wonderland, Thumbelina and the Blind Side have been played in the past.

Wine bars and coffee houses are hotspots at any time in downtown Bryan but take on a certain quaintness on First Friday. The Village Downtown is an art café that specializes in soup, salad, pastries, and sandwiches. The Village offers a place for live music, and an art gallery which support their mission to create an awareness of all things local in the Brazos Valley. Downtown Uncorked Wine Bar is located next to the Village Café and is a place to come and take a load off while you enjoy a glass of wine. Revolution Cafe & Bar is another venue offering live music and artwork.

The historic buildings of downtown Bryan are beautifully constructed and create a feeling of being back in the early 1900’s, when the Carnegie Library was built. This library, located in downtown Bryan, served as the community’s library for nearly 70 years before becoming a center that houses stacks of files and books of the city’s history. The LaSalle Hotel is another historic building that has been renovated. When it first opened in 1928, this hotel was seven stories tall and contained 100 guest rooms. It also housed a ballroom, a meeting space, and several small businesses including a tailor, a barber and a café. The hotel went through several conversions, and a period of being closed but is now reopened and a major attraction for the city of Bryan. The Queen Theatre is another historic location that is currently under construction.

Many art galleries offer live jazz, free art activities and numerous exhibits from local artists. Square One Studio & Gallery displayed an exhibit of art by graduating seniors majoring in Art, from Texas State University during the First Friday of April. Live painting demonstrations were held at the  Arts Council of Brazos Valley’s info tent, as well.

Shopping for unique accessories or one of a kind antiques is another popular attraction of downtown Bryan, and First Friday only brings in more jewelry pieces and antiques. Corner of Time Antiques & Collectibles Mall, is one place where customers are free to browse the antiques and then stop by the soda fountain for a drink. Corner of Time offers pottery wheel throwing and wood carving demonstrations in addition to live music. Jim.n.i. offers a wide variety of women’s clothing and accessories; from baby items, handbags, gifts, to all types of clothing.

Custom stained glass pieces and demonstrations of how to stain glass are offered by Brazos Glassworks.

Parking for this event is available in the brand new parking garage located at 27th St. and N. Washington, next to the Clara Mounce Library.

Downtown Bryan is located at 105 S. Main St., Bryan, TX.

See you there!

Steve Santos

PS – I’m Steve Santos, I do what I say I will do, sometimes more just never less!

My youngest son asks, “How did bluebonnets begin?”  “Why do the bluebonnets always grow along the sides of the highway?”  Well this did not stop my son here, this lead my family on a search of learning interesting facts about the “State Flower of Texas.”

** The first who noticed and admired bluebonnets were the American Indians.

** The bluebonnet is indeed an indigenous species—naturally occurs and lives in the same environment or area.

** The first recorded observation perhaps was made by Jean Louis Berlandier on April 13, 1826. The flowering plant  was not called bluebonnets at that time.

** On March 7, 1901, the bluebonnet was declared as the official flower of Texas. However, on March 8, 1971, all species of the bluebonnet, six of them, became known as the state flower.

** The bluebonnet is also known by other common names such as “Texas lupine,” “Buffalo clover” and “Wolf flower.”

** Former First Lady Bird Johnson encouraged the state of Texas to scatter wildflower seeds along the highways during the early 70’s.  They have spread and flourished ever since.

If you and your family enjoy driving and looking at the beautiful bluebonnets, head towards Austin.  This is where the “Bluebonnet Trail” begins.  Highways leading in all directions are lined with miles of bluebonnets.  From Austin, follow the Bluebonnet Trail by taking busy HWY 183 North to FM 1431 West all the way to Burnet Texas.
Texas State Wildflower Day is celebrated every April 24th and Burnet Texas calls itself the “Bluebonnet Capital of Texas” and hosts an annual Bluebonnet Festival the 2nd week in April.

Enjoy the explosion of bluebonnets this spring and remember you don’t mess with the Texas State Flower!

Kathy Massey

Century 21 Beal, Inc.

PS – Kathy Massey can make your “Dreams” a “Reality”.

The City of College Station is ranked by The Business Journals as the brainiest city in Texas among those with populations between 50,000 and 100,000. Some 28 percent of College Station residents hold a bachelor’s degree and another 28.23 percent have a graduate or professional degree. A lot of this has to do with Texas A&M faculty as well as so many Aggies staying here after graduation!

The Business Journals ranked 483 mid-sized U.S. cities using 2009 U.S. Census Data. The rankings were based on the percentage of population with each level of educational attainment.  Not only were we #1 in Texas, but College Station ranked No. 31 nationally.

So, next time someone makes an Aggie joke, make sure and let them know that they are actually making fun of the smartest city in all of Texas!

Wonder what businesses are eligible? American Express says…. “Eligible small business merchants are independently owned small businesses located in the United States that accept the American Express Card. Purchases made at large or national chain stores, at franchised business locations and at government agencies are not eligible. Prepaid, Corporate Cards and ExpressPay transactions are not eligible. ”

After you register your card on American Express look on Facebook (click the links to get to the sites you need) and you can search by zip code to see which small businesses are available. I found most local smaller businesses (that take the American Express card) are on the list!

A friend of mine sent me an email a while back about why we should buy local and how much buying local affects our LOCAL economy.  The email sent to me may have been written by someone else so if I am plagiarizing I apologize!  Below is the message. Are you going to buy local this year or send your money to another country instead?

GREAT Christmas thought from a friend – Where are you spending YOUR money?

As the holidays approach, the giant Asian factories are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods — merchandise that has been produced at the expense of American labor.

This year will be different. This year Americans will give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Oh…. Yes there is! It is time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in Chinese produced wrapping paper?

Everyone — yes EVERYONE gets their hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It’s appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.

Who wouldn’t appreciate getting their car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down the Benjamins on a Chinese-made flat-screen TV? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a gazillion owner-run restaurants — all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn’t the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint.

Remember, folks this isn’t about big National chains — this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people couldn’t use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would LOVE the services of a local cleaning lady for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I KNOW I can find some young guy who is struggling to get his repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit them into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip.

And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theatre. Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly people, do you REALLY need to buy another ten thousand Chinese lights for the house? When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community.

If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice BIG tip.

You see, Christmas is no longer about draining American pockets so that China can build another glittering city. Christmas is now about caring about US (We the People), encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we could not imagine.

THIS is the new American Christmas tradition!!

Unfortunately a lot of times we don’t realize that there are those in our community who don’t know where their next warm meal will come from, where they will sleep, or if their children will be warm enough this winter!  We don’t see it a lot, but it does exist more than you could even imagine!

This year, my kids and I decided that we would like to help those who are less fortunate than the majority of us in Bryan/College Station. We have started a coat/blanket drive in Castlegate with the donations going to the Twin City Mission!  What started as a small project has taken flight.  My daughter and I printed out about 100 fliers and asked a few of her friends to help us pass them out in our subdivision!  The kids have all gotten so into it that it has amazed me!  They just light up when people ask about how to donate!  Now it is on the Castlegate website and on Facebook!

It’s very simple if you want to get involved!  We are taking donations at 2445 Newark Circle today from 4-6 and tomorrow 9-11 am!  All you have to do is drive up to the curb and we’ll grab them from you.  If that time isn’t convenient, you can call me at 979-229-0919 and we can pick them up.  You can also drop them by the Century 21, Beal offices located at 404 H University Drive East at your leisure.

The kids are waiting to take your Coats and Blankets to give to the less fortunate!

We have a lot to be thankful for Aggieland, so let’s get out there and make this winter a little warmer for our Brazos Valley Neighbors!

For more information, give Farrah Spears a call at 979-229-0919

For more information about Castlegate and any home in Bryan/College Station, give me, Farrah Spears, a call at 979-229-0919.

Farrah Spears

979-229-0919

For more information about Castlegate and any home in Bryan/College Station, give me, Farrah Spears, a call at 979-229-0919.

Farrah Spears

979-229-0919

For all your real estate needs, Call Farrah B Spears at 979-229-0919

For all your real estate needs, Call Farrah B Spears at 979-229-0919