Forty students in Grade 4 and Grade 7 at Sunbury West School were ready to do business during a recent marketplace event held in the school gymnasium as part of the PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs Program. Working with their teachers, Cindy Farrell and Gisele Belyea, the students each decided on a product to sell, polled the young and old to measure demand, and created a marketing plan to launch their business. Their work included creating a display for the market and ensuring they produced enough product for sale. They also spent time practising their people skills to optimize their sales.

Students, staff, families and community members along with special guests were welcome to browse and purchase at the marketplace. The young entrepreneurs worked hard to convince buyers to take home their products from Willow's Wicked Cat Toys to Ryan's Scrat Catchers and everything in between. Items included lego crayons, duct tape wallets, jewellery, bat houses, bird houses, piggy banks, fidget toys, hockey stick picture frames and more. At the end of the day, all students were able to pay off their small business loans provided by their families. They gave a percentage of their profits to a charity of their choice and took home the remainder. Special guests at the marketplace served as judges and scored each student on their business savvy. The top scoring student from each of the two participating classes will enter a provincial competition at the end of March. 

Sunbury West School was one of 16 schools in the province chosen to take part in the PowerPlay Young Entrepreneurs Program. Shown in the photo below are (back row) Teacher Cindy Farrell, Quinn MacIntosh, Grace Gardiner, Maddy Campbell, Nathan Charlton, Shane Huggard, and teacher Gisele Belyea. (Front row) Brooke Carriere-Charlton, Willow McGuire-Gallant, Mayson Noble, Riley Knorr-Rossignol and Avery Underwood.