Sweet business success — Youth learn selling skills in Lemonade Day

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Nala Johnson serves a customer at her Lemonade Day stand at Fred Meyer on Saturday.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

This isn’t your average lemonade. No grainy, oversweetened, unnatural-colored powder, mostly diluted in tepid tap water. More like hand-squeezed, ice-chilled, fresh-ingredient culinary masterpieces worthy of Le Cordon Bleu — or pink, when swirled with muddled strawberries, or purple when marbled with a streak of grape flavoring.

There was sugar-free, for a more health-conscious option, blended with crushed ice for a more festive presentation, available in several sizes and with a diverse menu of sweet treats also available from the participants of Lemonade Day, with stands set up in front of businesses across the central Kenai Peninsula on Saturday.

As if the quality and variety weren’t enough to move pints of product, the pint-sized purveyors had additional sales strategies up their little sleeves — one stand had a big painted sign on the highway advertising its acceptance of credit cards; another “sold” lemonade for a donation, often getting more cash than if they’d listed a price of a dollar or two; and most had options for upselling, like an extra 50 cents for flavoring, or another buck for a drink to be blended with crushed ice.

Anya, right, and Truly Hondel attend to a customer at their stand outside Sweeney’s.

The purveyors of Anya and Truly’s Lemon A-Peel stand in front of Sweeney’s had perhaps the most sure-fire sales strategy of all — “I try to always smile and wave,” said 10-year-old Anya Hondel.

Few were the passers-by to resist that approach, as she and her sister, 4-year-old Truly, enthusiastically grinned and greeted customers in matching lemon aprons, with their lemonade-colored hair held back by yellow-and-white hats knitted by their grandmother, Terri Burdick.

Their menu included homestyle lemonade, strawberry-flavored lemonade, sugar-free lemonade and lemon cookies, and their

Anya said her strategy to business at her Lemon A-Peel stand was to keep on smiling.

yellow- and green-striped stand was equipped with a tip jar to capitalize on any feelings of generosity in their customers. A family at their school, Grace Lutheran, had participated in Lemonade Day last year, so this year the Hondel girls decided to give it a try.

As of noon Saturday the novelty was still fueling their venture. Even 4-year-old Truly wasn’t dampened by the drizzly weather, as she excitedly pointed out her favorite parts of the operation — “My princess chair!” she said of her Disney-themed assigned seat, and, “This is where we keep all the money!” of the secured cash box.

Anya said she was enjoying meeting all the new people, and that even the work part of the job wasn’t getting her down.

“I like making the lemonade. With the sugar we made a syrup, and then we poured lemon juice in it, and it’s pretty fun,” she said.

Good lessons can come the hard way

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

For many kids on the Kenai Peninsula on Saturday — and across the state and the rest of the nation — their first work experience came in setting up and operating their own minibusiness as part of Lemonade Day.

For me, commerce at age 6 meant hunting for slugs with a salt shaker. This might not make sense to anyone who hasn’t attempted to maintain a garden in a rain forest, but those sodium-sensitive globs of congealed snot can swiss cheese a rhubarb leaf in a day if left to their slow-moving digestive devastation. The gig paid 5 cents per dissolved slug, via my mom. Profits were invested in a diverse portfolio of frozen stock — cherry Otter Pops, orange Push-Up Pops and, if business was really booming, chocolate-vanilla swirl Pudding Pops.

I once, in second grade, got paid a dollar at recess to give a classmate lessons in being nice. It entailed me following the girl around and telling her not to punch people. Or at least help them up when she didn’t heed my first suggestion.

In third grade, I decided I wanted to be a roller-skating waitress when I grew up. I have no idea why. I couldn’t skate well with my hands free, much less encumbered by a tray of burgers and malts. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know what a malt was. And a brief stint waitressing when I was 13 proved I had no aptitude for the food service part, either.

At around 10 years old, I had a standing contract with a neighbor to find and return their family cat when it heard the call of the wild and headed for the hills — in this case, the nearby lumber mill yard — as it did every couple months.

By age 12, I and many other kids in our Southeast Alaska town spent our summers pickaxing garnets from slabs of mica schist, shining them up and hawking them to tourists at the ferry and cruise ship docks. (I realize, in retrospect, that this sounds like child labor, but given what we made it was not exploitive. Let’s just say we were livin’ the Pudding Pop life.)

I’ve mowed lawns, stained decks, sat kids, cleared brush, dug ditches, run theatrical lighting, lugged sound equipment and been a concert bouncer. No military service, but food service, customer service and lip service (aka, public relations).

Most were done of some sort of necessity — bills to pay, time to fill, favors to return. None I would consider to be integral to what has become my “career” — whatever that means in this day and age of people shifting professions an average of three to seven times. Certainly none I would list on a professional resume.

A few I viscerally hated, some I tolerated and even of the ones I enjoyed, none are anything I’d want to do again as a means of support. If I had to go back to one it’d be slug hunting, if it weren’t for the effect of recession on the value of a nickel. Alas, another victim of a slowing economy.

There were some miserable moments — thorny salmonberry bushes raking sunburn blisters, meeting a 4 a.m. ferry in the pouring rain hoping at least one of the passengers briefly disembarking to walk their dogs would have enough money and sympathy to buy something — please-oh-please anything! — or conferencing with the cook over an order for eggs Benedict because neither of us knew what the yellowish glop on top was supposed to be (we went with a mixture of canned nacho cheese, mayo and Thousand Island dressing and got back, as one would imagine, an untouched plate and no tip.)

But even though I don’t care to do them now, I wouldn’t undo any of those experiences. Even the worst jobs teach you what you don’t want to do, and that’s a lesson not to be undervalued.

My most random, dead-end or supposedly irrelevant job experiences have been my most meaningful. You learn a lot more about how to work doing something you dislike than something you love. Growth, after all, doesn’t come from comfort, nor does motivation from complacency.

Back in the saddle — Greenhouse sprouts kids’ riding dreams year-round

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Mercedes Tapley, 8, of Kenai, goes for a ride on miniature horse, Cowboy, led by Gracie Carroll, 13, of Sterling, at C&C Alaskan Horse Adventures’ greenhouse-turned indoor horse arena during a kids’ horse camp on Jan. 21. Connie Green modified her greenhouse to be able to offer lessons even during the winter.

Redoubt Reporter

Outside Connie Green’s greenhouse-turned-arena, a breeze ambled unbridled across the rolling hills of Sterling, making the air feel icy, like the layer of slick, frozen crust barely hidden under a scant covering of snow.

Inside, with the wind blocked by the clear sheeting attached to the curved metal rib cage, the captured warmth from the afternoon sun mingled with the retained temperature generated from a propane heater and the bodies gamboling about within.

Some were two-legged and diminutive, requiring a coat to ward off any remaining Alaska winter chill. The others were four-legged, were equipped with coats and were plenty capable of generating their own heat from their couple hundred- to 1,000-pound frames.

All were enjoying activities usually reserved for fairer seasons in Alaska — horse-riding  lessons.

The newly built greenhouse allows Green, owner of Alaska C&C Horse Adventures on Jim Dahler Road in Sterling, to teach kids horsemanship year-round.

“There are personal indoor arenas around, but they usually aren’t open to the public, so this has been real special, especially to bring kids. The kids say, ‘Really? You’re riding in the winter? We can come in here, turn the heater on if I need to. It’s out of the wind, out of the rain, the snow, the darkness. I’ve got lights that come on at 4 p.m. and it just lights up like a football stadium in here,” Green said.

As she well knows, a love of horses isn’t seasonal.

“It’s my passion. It’s 24 hours for me, I love it,” she said. “And there’s so many kids out there who can’t afford horses. And because of my journeys in life and my love for horses, I yearn to share.”

Green leads Mercedes through the nuances of cinching a saddle.

The participants in Green’s most recent horse camp, a no-school day Jan. 21, were Green’s horse-wrangler-in-training,

Gracie Carroll, 13, of Sterling, and four other girls, all as enamored with all things equine as Green had been at their ages.

“I’ve loved horses always, since I was a kid,” said Kylie Ness, 10, of Sterling.

“Ever since I knew how to say ‘horse,’” said Jenna Helminski, 13, of Sterling.

“They’re fun to ride, you can groom them, you can walk them — there’s so many fun things you can do,” Kylie said.

Bowled over by support — Scholastic league benefits from donations, fundraisers

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Mason Yamada, Keenan Orth and Morgan Bilyeu share a few laughs during a 1970s-themed night of bowling Saturday at Alaskalanes Family Bowling Center in Kenai. The event was a fundraiser for the youth who are all members of the Kenai Peninsula Scholastic League of bowlers.

By Joseph Robertia

Redoubt Reporter

Standing in front of crowd can be embarrassing for teenagers. Making your way to the front of a room full of your peers with “Disco Fever” blaring, while wearing a neon pink Velour leisure suit with a leopard-pattern lapel, and donning a giant floppy pimp hat, well, that would be awkward for anyone, regardless of age.

Mason Yamada handled this exact situation with poise Saturday at Alaskalanes Family Bowling Center in Kenai, where he was recognized for his pin-pounding prowess during a 1970s-themed night of bowling to raise money for him and several other young bowlers.

“Bowling is my sport. It’s what I do and I love it,” he said.

Yamada, one of eight middle- and high-school-aged youths involved in the Kenai Peninsula Scholastic League of bowlers, recently pitched a perfect 300 game — a tough task for any bowler. In addition to the bragging rights from his accomplishment, he also gained some green to one day be used for college tuition.

“The way it works is local businesses, adult bowlers and leagues support the kids, putting money into scholarship funds. This is our sixth year, but over the last five years we’ve given out between $15,000 and $20,000 in scholarship money,” said event organizer Kathy Waterbury.

Writing bug? Hop to it — Teen writes, publishes kangaroo book

By Joseph Robertia

Photo courtesy of Betsy Laws. Kiowa Richardson displays the book she wrote and illustrated, “The Christmas Kangaroo.”

Redoubt Reporter

Many famous authors have drawn inspiration from living simply in the tight quarters of tiny cabins. Perhaps another is blossoming here on the central Kenai Peninsula.

“We were living in a one-room cabin with no television or running water when she birthed the story,” said Betsy Laws, whose daughter, Kiowa Richardson, recently published her first book, “Christmas Kangaroos,” which she wrote two years ago at the age of 14.

The idea for the story came while Kiowa and her mother were preparing for a Christmas-related church function at New Life Assembly of God in Kenai.

“We were in charge of setting up the nativity scene and telling the story,” Kiowa said.

They bring in stuffed animals similar to those that would have been present in the Bethlehem manger to make a connection with the small children listening to the story, and to give them something to hold to keep them still while the tale is being told. They had one toy that didn’t fit the theme, though.

“We recently had gotten a stuffed kangaroo from a thrift store, and as we were setting up, we kept joking about how we should put it in,” Kiowa said.

Cycling through recycling — Nikiski youth rescues, repairs, redistributes junk bicycles

By Joseph Robertia

Photo courtesy of Boatright family. Daniel Boatright, of Nikiski, works on a bike in his garage. He’s rescued and repaired more than 40 bikes.

Redoubt Reporter

While some teens are content to mow lawns, bag groceries or flip burgers at a fast-food chain to make a couple of bucks, Daniel Boatright, a 14-year-old from Nikiski, is an entrepreneur in the business of bicycle repair and refurbishing other people’s two-wheeled rubbish.

“It started about two years ago when I got one from the dump,” he said.

Pulling in with his parents he saw a typical sight — items left off to the side of the trash bins that someone no longer wanted but thought someone else might. From appliances to furniture to, in this case, a bicycle, this is a common occurrence at the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s transfer stations.

“It’s very common to see a bike off to the side. People throw them away because a chain will break or they’ll bend a fender. It’s really wasteful,” he said.

That’s not how the boy was raised, according to his mother, Kirsten Boatright.

“It’s a throwaway society, but we’ve always recycled — newspaper, plastics, cardboard — and I’ve tried to teach all of my five children that through the years. When their sweatpants would get holes in the knees, I’d have them turn them around and keep wearing them, and even with our meals, we always make something out of the leftovers. There’s no wasting at our house,” she said.

Join the Tribe to help teens — Family expands network to aid youth in need

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Shawn and Krista Schooley, founders of The Tribe, a nonprofit group devoted to meeting the needs of youth, ages 13 to 25, facing homelessness, hold a barbecue Saturday to feeds teens at the Soldotna Skate Park.

Redoubt Reporter

For some teenagers, it can be hip to have tight jeans, but there’s nothing cool about having clothes you’ve completely outgrown. Some may like to have purposefully scraggily looking hair, but no one likes having an itchy, dirty scalp. Some teens like staying out late, but not having no place to go home to.

Unfortunately, for some teens right here on the Kenai Peninsula, the latter is their reality — no home and not knowing where their next meal is coming from.

“We don’t have stats for this year, but last year there were 300 teens here that were homeless and going to school, but we don’t know how many might be homeless and not going to school,” said Krista Schooley, of Soldotna, who with her husband, Shawn, began The Tribe, a nonprofit group devoted to meeting the needs of area youth aged 13 to 25 struggling with homelessness.

“Some are teens whose whole families are homeless. Others are teens who were kicked out. Others left home to get out of an unsafe environment, such as where they were being physically abused, sexually abused or where drugs or alcohol were a problem,” she said. “Regardless of the reasons, now they have nowhere to go or they surf from couch to couch.”