Budding Businesses: Spring bazaar will showcase local students’ handmade items, other goods and services

Those who visit the Montgomery County Public Library March 25 will have a chance to purchase unique items like jewelry/beaded creations, recycled crayons made into alphabet letters and spring/Easter knickknacks.

Your support will benefit young entrepreneurs as items for sale by businesses owned/operated by local homeschool youths will be on display at a Student Spring Bazaar from 2 to 6 p.m. at the library. 

The library offers a Homeschool Meetup group for kindergarten-12th grade students Wednesdays at 2 p.m. Students and parents come together to socialize, learn and develop skills. Each week features a different educational theme.

All of the students participating attend the meetup program and took part in classes on entrepreneurship and business planning taught by Izzy Becerra. Her children, Rosy (11) and Jesse (8) are among those participating in the fair.

Rosy and Jesse participated in a larger Children’s Business Fair in Frankfort last year. 

“I knew as soon as they began planning their business last year that I wanted to do something similar for the students in Montgomery County. I loved that the kids get to be in charge of everything, from coming up with an idea, to making a budget, to talking to customers and completing sales. After some thought, I decided to try hosting something on a smaller scale to get familiar with the process.” 

Twenty-two student businesses are expected to be on hand. The participants had to submit applications and have the businesses approved. 

Students range in age from 4 to 14 and the majority are local to Montgomery County. 

Students were given creative freedom with their businesses, Becerra told the Advocate. 

Some additional examples of items that will be available for purchase not mentioned above include handmade art designed from natural resources such as rocks, acorns and pinecones nicknamed “nart” for nature art and customizable slime. 

Other students chose to resell items they either had on hand or purchased and some are providing services, such as paper airplane lessons. 

There will even be games—a mystery claw machine. 

“As part of our business planning lesson, students had to think about how much money they hoped to earn and what they plan to do with it. Students are expected to pay back any startup costs, but beyond that, the profit is theirs to keep,” Becerra said. 

Becerra said the library was gracious to offer the space for the bazaar. 

Elizabeth Gose, the children’s services librarian, and Betty Hamilton are incredibly supportive of the homeschool community, according to Becerra. 

Being an entrepreneur requires qualities such as innovation and creativity. Becerra said in addition to that, she hopes students walk away with knowledge about problem solving skills and time management. 

“I want my children to try hard things, learn from their failures and feel pride at the success that comes from hard work. The theme we focused on during preparing for this bazaar was how being an entrepreneur can help the community, by seeing a problem and finding a creative way to fix it,” Becerra said.