By Sara Wilson
Opelika Observer
Time Served, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals with felonies establish a new life, is hosting a project that will allow community children to build lemonade stands.
Once funding is obtained, a date for the project will be set. The event will occur at the Covington Recreation Center.
Children from ages 7 to 15 can participate in building a lemonade stand. Once the stand is built, the child will have the chance to pick a boss and someone who makes the lemonade, all while earning a profit from the lemonade sales.
The hope of this project is to teach children team-building skills, patience and positive reinforcement as well as teaching them to invest. After reaching a set amount of sales, children will have the opportunity to invest their money into a snack bar to add to the lemonade stand.
“The reason I came up with the idea was because they (business owners) were complaining about children in certain areas of Opelika stealing things from businesses. I think that it is things they lack at home, and that way if they have money, they don’t have to go in and take things. They have money to buy these things,” said Time Served founder and president Alexis Meniefield.
Meniefield said that they have all the tools for this project, but are still in need of some of the materials such as wood and nails.
A GoFundMe account has been set up for those who are interested in donating.
The website can be found at www.gf.me/u/xk9nfc.