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El Segundo students sell homemade goods, services at Young Entrepreneurs Maker and Talent Fair
Summary
Students and youth-run booths filled El Segundo High School as the Young Entrepreneurs Maker and Talent Fair grew to 88 booths this year, organizers and participants said. Vendors ranged from homemade food and crafts to a student-run window-cleaning service and a club that assembles birthday supply kits for homeless shelters.
El Segundo — Students and youth vendors filled El Segundo High School for the Young Entrepreneurs Maker and Talent Fair, where local schoolchildren sold homemade goods, displayed inventions and practiced basic business skills, organizers and participants said.
The event began three years ago after one parent said she created a pop-up market to give children a place to sell items when an adult market stopped accepting kids. “That just sort of steamrolled this brainchild,” the parent organizer said, and the fair has grown from 41 vendor booths in its first year to 61 the next year and 88 this year.
The fair featured a wide range of student-run enterprises. A student vendor identified as Sugar Bombs said, “Our business name is Sugar Bombs, and so we're selling a lot of different things, like … homemade lip balms, shea butter and cocoa butter, homemade Play Doh, hazelnut brownie pops, and chocolate chip cookies.” Another student who runs a window-cleaning service said, “So, we are a window cleaning business. We go out, we have a van and everything, and we go and clean windows,” and added the service is based in El Segundo and operates across the South Bay.
Other vendors included students selling 3D-printed earrings and key chains, bakers selling caramel and chocolate-dipped apples, and a student group that partners with a national organization to assemble birthday-supply boxes for children in homeless shelters. A member of that group said, “In the past 2 years, we've probably done about 20 birthday boxes,” and described plans to expand the effort so the club can deliver boxes annually to more children.
Participants and organizers said the fair is designed to teach practical skills beyond selling: budgeting, time management, leadership and marketing. “Kids learn best when they're doing something,” one parent volunteer said. Several student vendors said the event offered them hands-on experience in pricing, customer service and product presentation and that some hope to move to online sales in the future.
Organizers included the El Segundo Council PTA and parent volunteers; vendors included nonprofit groups, food sellers, artists, makers using small-scale manufacturing tools such as 3D printers, and student-run service businesses. The fair’s organizers said they plan to hold the event again next year.
For El Segundo Media, Natasha Gascon reported on the fair.
