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On August 30th, the Lomita Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the City of Lomita hosted the Lemmys Awards event celebration in honor of our young entrepreneurs who participated in Lemonade Day Lomita 2022.

Over 120 guests joined in the celebratory evening to learn what the young entrepreneurs achieved this year thanks to their hard work and the support of their families, volunteers, mentors and sponsors for this 2nd annual event. Once again the City of Lomita had 37 lemonade stands open at local businesses and locations throughout the community. Over 50 young entrepreneurs made the commitment to start and run a lemonade stand for a real-life entrepreneurial experience and generated money to meet their save, spend, and share financial goals.

Success stories were shared and each participant received special recognition certificates from the City of Lomita Mayor and Councilmembers, LAUSD School Board and LA County Supervisor Janice Hahn, as well as a game generously donated by Community's Child. 

Winners of the Lemmy Awards were announced based on business results submitted this year for the following categories.

2022 LEMONADE DAY LOMITA LEMMY AWARD WINNERS:

Lomita Youth Entrepreneur of the Year: Pearl DiMassa (Lucky Lemonade Co.)

Lemonade Day is not necessarily about making the most money, it’s about being an entrepreneur and learning what it takes to run a business. This young entrepreneur’s journey started by being immediately inspired with ideas dancing around in their head, so they made sure to write them all down first and create a budget. They took the initiative to stop by local businesses to post their lemonade stand flyers in the windows. They constantly posted videos and pictures on tik tok, instagram and facebook, documenting their journey from testing out recipes and flavors, picking lemons right from the trees, and winning a first-place award at the best tasting lemonade contest. While they were a little overwhelmed and nervous on Lemonade Day, they learned to roll with the punches. They sold out of tumblers and learned to create more for next time. When one of their customers was not so nice to the health department, this entrepreneur stepped in to calm the customer and explained that the health department was part of the program. This is all part of being a business owner. This person earned over $1,700 which was over their projected goal. They spent only $49 over their budget thanks to donations and items gifted for free. They have set aside a portion of their profits to reinvest in their business to buy an iphone to post better videos and pictures to their social media accounts. They also plan on saving money for college to attend their dream school. And of course they donated 10% of their earnings to their charity of choice. But this entrepreneur went beyond Lemonade Day. Taking the lessons learned that day, they went on to open their stand at a pop up event and made sure to prevent running out of product and adjusted their price points. They also learned that they couldn’t do everything they planned to do at their stand, and it was more important to spend their time serving customers. To quote this entrepreneur: “It’s important to always remain flexible and learn how to adjust when things don’t work out how you want them to.” This entrepreneur demonstrated leadership skills, a passion to stand by their idea and put in the work, willingness to improvise and listen to others, and being open to new opportunities.

Best Lemonade Stand: Bri's Frozen Lemonades (Brianna G.)

Now this particular entrepreneur not only built their stand with their father, they reinvested some of the money from last year to upgrade their stand to incorporate a chalkboard menu sign into their design and added foldable side tables to maximize their space to serve customers since they had several flavors to choose from and a lot of products to sell to their customers. What also stood out is that this entrepreneur made sure to have other things going on at their stand to keep their customers engaged and hanging around to buy more stuff. Not only did they have merchandise for sale, they had a photo booth at their stand so that customers could take a photo to remember the day and take it with them so they had a memento with their logo on it.

Most Creative Recipe: Bri's Frozen Lemonades (Brianna G.)

Now this entrepreneur noted that there was a lot of competition so they worked extra hard to come up with something even more unique from the other lemonade stands and they already had several unique recipes and flavors from last year so they really stepped up their game this time. In addition to having their regular flavors, they added several more including cherry and pomegranate, but this particular entrepreneur had a “top secret” flavor that was not disclosed until Lemonade Day itself. Maybe you’ve enjoyed this flavor in pies or jams, but having this flavor as a lemonade was something else! Can you guess what the flavor is?... that’s right, boysenberry.

Highest Grossing Sales: Maki’s Retro Lemonade (Makani P.) & Most Philanthropic: Maki’s Retro Lemonade (Makani P.)

This entrepreneur had the support of her family and team to help with social media but this young person was in full command on Lemonade Day. From taking orders to taking pictures and being interviewed, this entrepreneur sold 186 cups of lemonade that day and sold 173 virtual cups of lemonade online before they even opened their stand. Despite needing a nap, this hard-working entrepreneur kept going even when customers were arriving as their stand was closing down and learned that next time, they will hire their cousin so they can get a lunch break. This young entrepreneur made the highest in sales generating $2,486 in total sales. This business owner incorporated the 50s diner theme in everything they did at their lemonade stand including dressing the part, ringing the bell and shouting “order up”, and taking so many pictures that they felt like an actress on Lemonade Day. This young entrepreneur not only made the highest in sales, but was also incredibly philanthropic.

Most Innovative: Cole’s D’Luxe Lemonade (Cole O.)

Now this particular entrepreneur not only found the perfect recipes for classic lemonade, strawberry and watermelon lemonade, made with homemade simple syrup, they also had a draw with a classic car show in the parking lot to enjoy while sipping some of their lemonade. They got sponsors to donate tickets to a Dodgers game, gift cards and free haircuts in order to sell raffle tickets for a chance to win. The classic cars and raffle must have been a hit as they sold out of lemonade. This entrepreneur learned what hard work goes into running the business and how to multitask between taking orders, serving customers, giving change and selling raffle tickets.

Most Creative Marketing: Avengers Power Lemonade (Ethan K.)

One of the valuable lessons our entrepreneurs learn is through partnerships. This entrepreneur found a creative way to appeal to a broad base of customers by partnering with other established business owners to give customers the option to purchase food and shandys from Pizza Kraft and Project Barley. This partnership resulted in a portion of those sales going back to the young entrepreneur and gave the businesses exposure to new customers. Beyond this cross marketing tactic, the young entrepreneur created a promotional video and advertised their lemonade stand via social media, coupons and held a pre-sale limited edition lemonade flavor that would not be available on Lemonade Day in order to cover initial expenses. This entrepreneur even convinced their dad to suit up as spider man for meet-and-greet pictures with customers at their lemonade stand.

Mayor's Award: Rainbow Lemonade (Isabella G.)

A new award that we’ve added this year called the “Mayor’s Award.” We looked at those entrepreneurs who are local to our community and schools and followed the Lemonade Day program through, from going to classes, submitting their business results and sharing how they saved money and gave money back. We also looked at some of the obstacles that the entrepreneur shared that they were able to overcome. This entrepreneur had big plans to offer 6 different flavors at their lemonade stand. However, their friend unfortunately could not continue with Lemonade Day due to the passing of her grandfather. Despite this sadness and not having that friend to help operate the stand with them on that day, this entrepreneur carried on with four lemonade flavors and through this experience demonstrates how she actually reflects the theme of the business: “When life gives you lemons, make a RAINBOW.”

Bike Raffle Winner: Slashing Lemonade (Isaac E.)

Lemonade Day National sends a bicycle to each participating city every year. Entrepreneurs who actually submitted their business results were entered into this drawing for a chance to win. This entrepreneur is a Lemonade Day Alum and worked with their dad to build their stand out of recycled items and with their mom to help them advertise the business. After setting up their stand they were visited by VIPs including the Mayor of Lomita and County Supervisor Janice Hahn who loved the strawberries added to the lemonade. After selling over 160 cups of lemonade and literally stopping traffic on Lomita Blvd for takeaway lemonades, this young entrepreneur is looking to the future to increase their clientele and getting their little brother to help run the stand next year.

We’d like to congratulate all of this year's Young Entrepreneurs and our 2022 Lemmy Award Winners for their outstanding work!

The Lomita Chamber of Commerce is proud to be the organizer of this annual signature event bringing together the community, kids, families, businesses, youth organizations and schools in our city. This amazing experience has planted the seed for the next generation to become the business leaders, social advocates, community volunteers and forward-thinking citizens of tomorrow. For more inspiring stories, great moments and successes visit the Lemonade Day Lomita website and social media platforms at Facebook and Instagram.

Thanks to the support of our Sponsors: South Bay Credit Union, the City of Lomita, California Water Service, Lomita-Harbor City Kiwanis, Adam Chiropractic, M&A Management, Ricky Pennington State Farm Agent, Coastal Funeral Center, ACE Hardware Lomita, Cycle Gear, Nickerson Insurance, Thompson Building Materials, Luigi Schiappa Development, Athens Services, The Picerne Group, Water Replenishment District, Best, Best & Krieger Attorneys at Law, The Van Lingen Group, Koven Video Productions.

Watch the video to learn more about this year's results!