“Small” Business Owners Combine Faith and Entrepreneurship
Looking like typical 7- and 9-year-old brothers, Anthony and Alex (names changed) came to Kids Can! Summer Day Camp excited to have fun, make new friends, and become entrepreneurs in their own small businesses. Not so typical is the fact that Anthony and Alex’s family is struggling with homelessness and recently came to stay at Interfaith Hospitality Network. Asked what their favorite part of Summer Day Camp is, they said “I liked making and selling our products” and “I liked learning about God and Jesus.”
This year SCYM provided 27 children from Springfield City Schools, about one -third from IHN, with four weeks – twenty-five hours a week – of fun, faith-building activities, opportunities to learn about business and make and sell their own products, and most of all relationships with caring adults and older youth who show them the love of Christ. Unique aspects of the entrepreneurship camp included testimonies from local business people about how their faith impacts their business; teaching times about faith, honesty, and using money wisely; lessons from Junior Achievement; micro-loans from Fifth Third Bank (where the kids enjoyed sending drive-thru tubes!); and a camp store at City Hall Plaza on July 14-15.
Praise the Lord for four weeks that Alex and Anthony (and others) will never forget. They have glimpsed God’s love and promise for them, and have seeds of hope planted for their futures!