Coastal Alabama Kids Entrepreneurs, a Coastal Alabama Business Chamber program, will host their first ever "C.A.K.E. Day," on May 11, in hopes of inspiring local elementary schoolers to take in interest in entrepreneurship and the process of developing a business.

According to Penny Hughey, vice president of education and programs, the event is designed to educate younger students on the advantages of entrepreneurship and was designed specifically for students at the local elementary schools.

Hughey said while the program mainly conducts weekend workshops for students interested in business, she wanted to give local elementary students a chance to have "hands-on" experience operating a business outside of the classroom.

"We have participated in other "kid-oriented" entrepreneurship programs in the past, but it was important to me to create something that was outside, tailored for our kids in out community rather than trying to make someone else's program work for us," Hughey said."We live in a community that is driven by entrepreneurship, and kids are a lot smarter than we give them credit for sometimes. They are like little sponges just soaking up all the information and learning from it, and hopefully they will grow up to be business owners right here in our community."

Hughey said the program began to take off in 2023, and the chamber worked with administrators at local elementary schools, reviewed similar program and talked with parents and local business owners to curate the program.

"We involved people like Yolanda Johnson from the Alabama Small Business Development Center, who helps adults start their own business and got a lot of information and advice from her on how to develop a program for kids," Hughey said. "We spent a whole year conducting research and learning as much as we could so that we could build the best program possible for our kids."

Hughey said the program's main event will be the upcoming "C.A.K.E. Day," which will feature different student run businesses from students at Gulf Shores Elementary School, Orange Beach Elementary School, South Baldwin Christian Academy, as well as local homeschooled students.

"We will provide a map to the community that shows where all the different stands are located, their business names, what they will be offering, and what their operation hours will be. Each student will be operating their own stand in their own location and selling their product and service," Hughey said. "We will have a variety of different businesses from students selling coffee to lemonade to deserts to jewelry to art to fishing lures. The type of business the students decide to run is limited only by their imagination."

Hughey said there will also be a "judging" team that will visit all the locations, interviewing students, purchasing products and issuing the students a score based on how well they implemented the program's lessons. At the end of the event, the judges will give out certificates and prizes to the winners.

"This is an opportunity for students as young as Kindergarten age to start and run a real business, we are teaching them how to come up with an idea, how to come up with a brand, how to develop a business plan. We even take them through the process of a 'business lease' to rent their space and even have a fund set up for them to borrow money through our 'Little Lenders' program," Hughey said. "The goal is for these kids to create and operate a business and make real money. We also teach them to be good stewards with that money to keep some for themselves, to save some for a 'rainy day' and most importantly, to share some of the money they raise and give back to the community that has supported them. That's an important lesson for them to learn."

The C.A.K.E. Day event will take place on Saturday, May 11, and exact locations of the student-run business stands will be provided by the organization closer to the event.

For more information on getting involved with the program, or to participate in C.A.K.E. Day visit www.mygulfcoastchamber.com