Coeur d'Alene resident leads Lemonade Day Kootenai County youth program
Bretta Provost turned engineering and marketing experience into Lemonade Day Kootenai County, linking youth business skills with local fundraising, service and leadership.
Bretta Provost has turned a career that started in civil environmental engineering into a civic role that reaches far beyond business. The Coeur d'Alene resident, who earned her degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and later worked in consulting, wellness, hospitality, entrepreneurship and digital marketing, has become one of the faces of Lemonade Day Kootenai County, a youth program built around running a small business and learning how to give back.
That mix of professional experience and community purpose has helped make Provost a visible local connector in Kootenai County. After moving to Coeur d'Alene, she built a new chapter around marriage, motherhood and volunteer leadership, using the skills she picked up in the private sector to support young people who are just beginning to learn how money, work and service fit together. Lemonade Day Kootenai County says its mission is to help today’s youth become tomorrow’s business leaders, social advocates, community volunteers and forward-thinking citizens.
The program is free for youth ages 5 to 18, and its next countywide event is scheduled for June 20, 2026. A Fresh Squeezed 5K Fun Run and Kickoff was held April 18 at Riverstone Park in Coeur d'Alene, giving families a public start to the season. The local chapter’s 2025 Lemonade Day took place July 26, and when the first Kootenai County event was announced in 2024, organizers said they hoped to register 100 youth. Kids have been encouraged to set up stands in neighborhoods, parks, marketplaces, places of worship, schools and other public spaces.
Lemonade Day began in Houston in 2007 and says it has now reached 1.5 million kids in 97 communities in two countries, generating $184 million in profits. In Kootenai County, the program has also become a way to connect entrepreneurship with philanthropy. An example photo showed Provost with teens selling lemonade to raise money for the Thirst Project, which says it is the world’s largest youth water organization and reports 3,560 projects and 655,927 people served across 13 countries.
Local students have already shown how the model can work. McKenzie McMurray was named the 2025 Youth Entrepreneur of the Year after her stand brought in $1,238 for the Red and Blue Foundation. Another stand, J & K Lemonade, supported Make-A-Wish Idaho in memory of Jaicey Lupton, with Jaxon Lupton tied to that effort. For families in Coeur d'Alene and across Kootenai County, Provost’s work shows how business know-how can be redirected into youth opportunity, neighborhood pride and lasting community habits.
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