Young entrepreneurs came together Saturday at Tri-CYA to pitch their products, ranging from keyrings to cupcakes and more.
All of the young business owners are 18 or younger, Debbie Rimmler, director of the Tri-CYA said. The organization provided the space and some basic business training. It will also be providing scholarships to help new businesses to form limited liability corproations and to help their businesses get going.
Among the 15 businesses were Taste the Sugar, owned by Alishia Glace, who specializes themed cakes and cupcakes, La Vida No Espera, which offers hats, hoodies, t-shirts, and other items (Venmo: @andymelendez), and Jessica Gaizo, an Oldfield Middle School student who was representing Girls Who Code and selling keychains with themed messages.
Mercy Jean-Baptiste, a West Hollow Middle School student, was promoting her book of poetry, Me, Mercy, which she has self-published on Amazon.
She said she’d participated in a youth writing program, which helped her learn to express herself. The eighth grader, who is 13, said that initially, “In the beginning, I didn’t really like poetry but all of a sudden it caught my eye.”
The theme of one of her favorite poems centers on, “I thought i wasn’t enough but soon i realized i shouldn’t have to change for anyone, that I am enough,” she said.