Mizuktata – Nome kids become entrepreneurs

Clouds and occasional rain didn’t stop Nome’s young entrepreneurs from showing up for Mizuktata last Saturday, June 27. Mizuktata, which means “let’s drink juice” in Inupiaq, is Nome’s version of Lemonade Day, a national program that aims to teach kids how to start, own and operate a small business. 
Mizuktata has been organized for the last few years by local Nomeite Krystal Hensley. This year, the Bering Sea Lions Club, or BSLC for short, stepped in to help Hensley with the effort. Twenty kids participated in a budget workshop on Thursday evening and there were 49 registered stands dotting Nome on Saturday, selling everything from biscuits and gravy to cupcakes and of course, lemonade.
Hensley said that the reach of the Lions Club helped get the word out to more participants. There were 15 more registered stands than last year, but when she went around Nome on Saturday, there were even stands that had signed up too late to be included in the official count. “We had over 50 stands this year. It was amazing,” she said.
Hensley said that Mizuktata can be a group affair. Some stands have six or seven kids, and parents also help out. “My daughter, she wanted to do something different,” she said. “She had just started getting into helping her dad grill, so she asked her dad, ‘Can we grill for my lemonade stand?’”
Stands had scattered start times – one selling bagels and cold brew opened at 9 a.m., and others didn’t open until 3 p.m.
Koko Barnes had set a table up on Lomen Street and was selling lemon bars, blueberry muffins, cookies, rice Krispies and loaded nachos. Koko spends her summers in Nome and was fundraising so she could participate in a play back in Texas, where she goes to school. This is about her fifth time participating in Mizuktata, and she normally makes around $500.
“It’s really fun. I think it’s a great experience,” she said. “If you want to make a business at a young age, then it’s like a training step.”
Karen Olanna had pulled up to Weston Sinnok’s stand on West 1st Avenue just after 10 a.m. She said she tries to go to as many stands as she can each year. “I like the entrepreneurial support that the program gives,” she said. “It’s been fun to watch it grow from just a simple stand to a huge table with parents involved and kids, raising money for specific goals, and the food is awesome.”
Sinnok was selling baked goods and biscuits and gravy to a long line of shoppers. He said he was not saving up for any specific purchase and just wanted to earn some extra money.
Mercy Ventress and her siblings were set up outside their house on the west side of town. She said she was trying to save up for a trip to Colorado and excursions on a cruise. “I’m selling Thai iced tea, lots of different colors of slime,” she listed off. “There’s biscuit bombs, spam messages, bookmarks, there’s sparkly stickers and plain stickers.”
In Anvil City Square, Kinley and Fisher Krift had set up a table stocked with baked goods, lemonade and antipasto salad. The kids were selling to raise money for the purchase of two ferrets. Kinley said that they already had a couple hundred saved up for the cage and accessories.
“We have $300 so we would need to make probably at least $600 – $300 for each ferret,” chimed in Fisher.
Inside the XYZ Senior Center, Alyona Chepurko was dishing up hot dogs and selling still-warm loaves of cherry chocolate bread, two kinds of lemonade and other baked goods. She’s saving the money for buying a car or a house when she’s older.
Chepurko said her mom and grandmother had helped her prepare her the food, but this isn’t her first time doing Mizuktata. She said she makes pretty good money – last year, she made $300.
By late morning, light rain was making an appearance. Rosalie Richards, helped by dad Keane and sister Amelia had set up a tent in Anvil City Square, selling bread loaves, mini cheesecakes and other treats. 
Rosalie has been fundraising to purchase horses that could be used by the 4-H Club. The club in Nome is currently focused on dog mushing, but they want to look into other kinds of animal husbandry. “We’ve been thinking of expanding that to something bigger, like horses,” she said. “It’s a lot of money. We have like $7,000 now, but we’re kind of thinking around $25,000 to $30,000.”
Sheltering from the rain underneath a tent in the Bering Straits Native Corporation parking lot, Rayme Payenna had a table full of chocolate peanut butter pie, raspberry brownies, cheesecake and a chips and pickle flavored dip.
Hannah Joe had ordered from Payenna’s stand, and the Joe family was driving around on four-wheelers, trying to hit as many stands as possible. “I do a lot of baking so it’s good to try stuff,” said Joe.
Hensley said that in the run up to last weekend, Drew McCann with Northrim Bank led a budgeting workshop where he discussed budgeting and paying back sponsors or parents who might help the kids finance their stands, as well as putting money in a savings account. “He even shared about if you want to donate some of your money to organizations, so he got the kids thinking about all of that,” said Hensley.
After the selling concluded, there was a “Splash It Up” party at the Pioneer Igloo where Mizuktata participants received prizes and some bigger prizes were raffled off. Sponsors for the event helped pay for the prizes, including five bikes that Hensley shipped from Anchorage.
Hensley said part of the reason why she helps organize Mizuktata is that it provides a big learning opportunity for kids to be entrepreneurs. “They just learned so much from it, from the math to the public speaking to the baking,” she said.