Central Texas College teaches 120 kids business skills for Lemonade Day

One hundred twenty children from Coryell and Bell counties spent a full day at Central Texas College’s Mayborn Science Theater learning how to price, budget, build a product and sell it. The lesson was designed to give local families something more concrete than a feel-good youth event: a working introduction to entrepreneurship before Lemonade Day arrives in May.

Central Texas College’s Net Impact chapter hosted the Lemonade Day University workshop as one of its signature projects, pairing local youth with college student mentors inside the Technology Center and Mayborn Science Theater complex. Under faculty advisor Dr. Chastity Clemons, the chapter says it uses student-led programs and projects to help build emerging leaders, and the Friday meetings from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. in Building 267 give the campus a standing place for that work to continue.

Lemonade Day is a national program built around a simple business model, a child-owned lemonade stand, but its teaching goal goes much further. Founded in Houston in 2007, the organization says it has grown to reach 1 million children in more than 80 licensed markets, including U.S. military bases. Its mission is to prepare youth for life through hands-on lessons in financial literacy, goal setting, customer service and leadership.

In the Fort Hood area, the program has operated since 2010 and says the next Lemonade Day weekend will be May 2 and May 3, 2026. Organizers say the local effort is meant to help today’s children become the business leaders, community volunteers and forward-thinking citizens of tomorrow, with a model that starts at a lemonade table and carries into everyday decision-making.

The scale already shows up in the numbers. A June 2025 post from First National Bank Texas and First Convenience Bank said the Fort Hood area program had 2,200 children registered in 2025, more than 120 lemonade stands on Lemonade Day weekend, $25,513 in gross revenue and $3,684 in charitable donations. The same update said the program’s cumulative gross revenue had reached $210,832, with $60,873 in charity contributions, and that it had reached children across Fort Hood, Killeen, Harker Heights, Copperas Cove, Kempner, Belton, Temple and Salado.

For Coryell County families, the path forward is straightforward. Central Texas College’s Net Impact chapter meets every Friday, and Lemonade Day Fort Hood Area is already set for May 2 and May 3, giving children another chance to turn classroom-style lessons in branding and budgeting into a real-world sale of their own.