Our children are our future. Yes, it is an old cliche but it is also true. 

If we want to make our communities better in the future, we need to make investments. More specifically, we need to make investments in our children. 

There are a variety of ways to make investments in our children. It is investing time, perhaps by coaching your child’s soccer team and building their confidence and social skills. It is investing talent, maybe by sharing your joy of playing the guitar by teaching a young person. 

And it is investing treasure, by putting financial resources toward our young people and their ideas. This is where the McCook Community Foundation Fund (MCFF) is making an investment, by putting funds toward two programs this summer which support youth entrepreneurship. 

Fund from a Youth Engagement Grant from MCFF and the Nebraska Community Foundation are supporting the Hormel Youth Entrepreneurship Camp and Lemonade Days.

Designed for fourth graders through seniors in high school, these two programs are designed to teach young people what it is like to own and operate a business. They will learn that it is possible to take their idea and make it a reality. And most importantly, they will learn that their community wants to invest in them, wants them to succeed and wants them to be here. 

The Hormel Youth Entrepreneurship Camp is a simplified version of the Hormel Business Competition held every two years in Southwest Nebraska. The youth competition - yes, it is a camp where they will learn a lot, but it’s also a competition where the winners will win cold, hard cash - is open to anyone entering 8th through 12th grade this fall. They must also live in the seven counties served by Mid-Plains Community College (Red Willow, Hayes, Furnas, Frontier, Chase, Hitchcock and Dundy counties), a sponsor along with MCFF and Red Willow 4-H Extension.

Otherwise, there are no restrictions and even better, no costs to the student. They don’t even need to have a plan…just an idea, a dream, a concept for a business they would like to see in Southwest Nebraska. 

It includes a week-long camp June 21-25 where they will get to visit local businesses, learn what how to start a business and take their ideas from concept to concrete plan. In July, they will have access to an online marketing class and in August, they’ll develop an actual business plan. 

The competition culminates in September with a formal presentation to judges, with the top three winning cash prizes including $5,000 to the top business plan. Open to just 20 students, every will benefit by learning how to own and operate a business. And maybe more importantly, whether they truly want to be a business owner.

The entrepreneur camp actually wraps up in November when the winners will present their business idea during the Nebraska Community Foundation’s annual training and banquet, held in McCook this year.

But not to leave out our younger entrepreneurs, Lemonade Days is open to those in fourth through sixth grades. Sponsored by the McCook Economic Development Corp., the McCook Chamber of Commerce and MCC, Lemonade Days will have our young people operating their own lemonade stands along Norris Avenue on Saturday, July 10 during McCook’s Crazy Days. 

The concept behind Lemonade Days is to introduce these young people to the steps of running a business. It includes everything from “renting” a location to obtaining a “loan” to purchase supplies. There will be marketing and promotion and of course, repaying that loan at the end of their lone sales day. 

For more information about Lemonade Days, call the McCook EDC at 308-345-1200 or visit www.lemonadeday.org/mccook. Registration is due by June 10. 

Registration for the Youth Entrepreneurship Camp is due by June 14, with brochures around McCook or online at www.bceregister.mpcc.edu.

Both of these programs are great opportunities to show our young people that they can make their business happen here and that they can make a difference. 

But more importantly, these investments show that their ideas matter and that they are valued. The investment shows that we are willing to listen to them and that we are willing to put our time and resources into their ideas. The investment shows that we are willing to take a chance on their hopes and dreams to make McCook an even better place to call home.