ELKHART COUNTY – A 12-year-old Elkhart County student started his own non-profit company to raise money for a playground project.
At Bristol Elementary, some sixth graders are making, selling, and marketing chocolate covered cup cake pops. They even created a spread sheet, business model, and business cards. The money generated will go to buy playground equipment for a local mobile home park.
Saleh Al-Azawi, 12, is the president of the non-profit group who came up with the idea and also lives near the park.
“Well, everyone around me, like all my classmates and friends, they were good at cooking or baking, and they had a special skill,” said Al-Azawi. “So that’s why I came up with the idea of baking cup cakes."
He found that forming a new company is not always easy.
“There is a lot of hard things about starting you own business,” Al-Azawi said. “Starting from scratch is always hard, because you have nothing to work with.”
But with the help of local businesses, Martin's, a local chef, and grown-up mentors, Al-Azawi and the other sixth graders were able to make it happen.
Like any startup company, they had to come up with a business plan, a business model, a budget, officers, a mission statement, and a plan for the future
“They've really used the community resources to make their philanthropic dream come true,” said Andrea Spaeth, the academic dean of students. “It’s really a great entrepreneurial spirit.”
“We get to use computers and we do cost benefit analysis,” said Matthew Whelchel, the company treasurer.
Their goal is to make 1200 of the cup cake pops that will sell for $0.25 a piece. You can purchase them at the Bristol Elementary, as well as at Luccheses Restaurant, and Stone Soup Emporium.
