Chamber making plans for next year’s Island Happenings

by Larry Austin
Grand Island Dispatch, July 3, 2009

The Grand Island Chamber of Commerce hopes to build on some new ideas gained at Saturday’s Island Happenings event, which took place at Marion Klingel Town Commons.

John Bonora said Island Happenings had a great cross-section of vendors for its Business Expo, and Kid Biz continues to grow proportionally every year.

“Next year’s I can promise will be bigger and better,” Bonora said of the event. Bonora said the chamber would emphasize a Taste of Grand Island for food vendors next year, as well as perhaps open up Whitehaven Road between Baseline and Grand Island Boulevard to provide more opportunity for customer traffic.

“It was a spectacular day,” Bonora said following the event.

Jim Sharpe, chairman of Kid Biz, said there were 70 signed up as vendors, not counting supporting staff that he estimated bumped up the child participation to 125 kids or so.

“I think today was a tremendous success again,” Sharpe said, adding the day worked out just as hoped, with sunny skies and plenty of vendors. He credited the children and parents, as well as the assistance of businesspeople Mike Heftka and Beverly Kinney and the Chamber of Commerce. The GI CoC was “priceless” in its support, he added.

“I don’t think it hurts at all to start the kids early” with business education, Bonora said. “When you see the numbers of kids increasing proportionally as they have for the last three or four years, you know more kids are interested, and more and more kids are excited about it.”

Not every kid at Kid Biz was out to strike it rich. Some were there to make money for others in need.

Marlie Hess opened Marlie’s Fight for Pediatric Cancer and sold cupcakes, cookies, lemonade and dog treats as a fundraiser. She took her idea from a girl she saw on the Today Show, who raised money for the American Cancer Society at her lemonade stand.

“I just took on that idea, too,” she said, adding that two adult family friends with cancer – Craig Wittman and Virginia Robinson – inspired her effort.

“I like it. It’s a bunch of fun,” Marlie said of the Kid Biz. “It’s fun just to stand here, get some sun and sell stuff.”

Marlie wants to be a chef when she grows up, so selling baked goods was right up her alley.

“I had a little help with the cupcakes, but I made the cookies and the lemonade,” she said.

Her mom, Gail Hess, liked the Kid Biz concept.

“I think it’s great for her. It helps teach them responsibility, it shows them compassion and gets them involved with the community,” she said.

Rachelle Regnet of Animal Helpers said half her proceeds from art sales would benefit the SPCA.

Justin Kozlowski, Ryan McDonald and Allison McDonald of Fantastic Flip Toys, made their product based on one Justin had seen on a trip to Mexico in February. He brought a similar type of toy home and the trio essentially did some reverse-engineering and came up with a design.

“We got this idea because it was pretty simple to make,” Justin said.

“We made 60 of them,” Allison added.

Pricing “was a last-minute decision,” said Ryan. “We were debating two or three dollars. Then we walked around to see the other kids’ prices.”

They knew their costs per unit down to the penny at 66 cents.

“They went through and they wrote down how much the wood cost, how much the glue cost, how much the paint cost and everything,” said Tricia McDonald, Justin’s mom. “They had it all itemized and they divided it by how much they made.”

They sold half their inventory before the day was half done.

In the weeks preceding Kid Biz, Sharpe presented seminars at schools explaining what the event is all about and how to market a business centered around three goals:

1. Have fun.

2. Make money.

3. Learn.

“They went beyond what I told them,” Sharpe said, with displays that were “right on market.”

“The stuff they put out today was very imaginative,” he said. “They thought about it. They didn’t turn around and just go to the store and buy something and try to resell it.” Kid Biz participants realized they couldn’t sit in their booth and make money, but rather ventured out to sell directly, Sharpe noted.

“I think that the reward at the end of the day was not only the reward of having a few dollars in your pocket, but the reward of having the experience of actually putting on your own business, having people come buy from them, having a conversation with them, and actually feeling that I did this, this is mine, I own this,” Sharpe said.