"Young Achievers" may not be the first thing that comes to mind when hearing about kids pushing slime on a downtown street corner, but that's exactly what was happening in Chatham Thursday afternoon.
Kids in the Business Blast Camp at Junior Achievement's Chatham spent the week planning, making, and marketing products to sell to the community.
A dozen students were paired off and a total of six products were available ranging from classics like bookmarks and lemonade to the new craze of slime.
Sydney was on team "Slime Shop" and could have a future in chemistry if she decides not to take advantage of her business savvy.
"You use glue as the base, then add some food colouring and borax and it turns stretchy," Sidney said. "It is sales day today and I am making slime which is $7. There are many different colours and types and they're pretty nice. We are learning about marketing and how to advertise [the products] so [customers] are like 'oh that's nice. I should buy that.'"
She added if you get slime that is a bit too sticky, you can add some baking powder and it should fix it right up.
Camp Counselor and former camper Jessica Weaver said it is really important to get kids thinking about business at a young age because it can relate to various aspects of real life.
Weaver said selling and marketing help build human relation and interaction skills.
"They didn't get to pick their partners, we picked them for them, so it's working with people that they may not have chosen to work with, making new friends and connections," Weaver said. "There is also an academic portion where we write our business plans and do our finances. They see if business is what they want to do."
According to Weaver, the products campers were allowed to make were endless, so long as they stayed within the budget and time-frame, which counsellors helped them do.
Reese Dreveny was another little entrepreneur who put together an idea to sell bookmark making kits. Like a smart businesswoman, she did her research to plan her success.
"We saw a PowerPoint and it had some ideas on it of what you could make," Dreveny said. "Last year kids made bookmarks and they sold well and my partner and I figured we should add our own twist on that."
Dreveny added half of the proceeds of everyone's sales will go to Habitat for Humanity. She said it is a great cause to help out those less fortunate in the community.
Campers opened up shop in at the Young Achievements building in Chatham to show off their business savvy. July 19, 2018. (Photo by Greg Higgins)
