[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 11769]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               COOL BLAST LEMONADE STAND, CYPRESS, TEXAS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. There's a new small business in my district in 
southeast Texas: Cool Blast Lemonade Stand, run by the Sutton sisters 
of Cypress, Texas. Clara is 7 and Eliza is 4. Their newest employee is 
little brother Eirik, who recently was hired to join the team. They 
even have their own Facebook page with 867 followers.

                              {time}  1100

  On their Facebook page, they say this about their business:

       We are entrepreneurs who started a lemonade stand for 
     Lemonade Day. We are going to continue working to earn money 
     to spend on things we would like, save and also to share with 
     our two chosen charities, Meals on Wheels and Paws of Texas 
     Rescue.

  Mr. Speaker, they learned all of these lessons without any 
interference from the Federal Government.
  Their father, Andrew, said this:

       They did it all on their own. Nobody helped them except us. 
     My wife and I both run our own businesses, so running a 
     lemonade stand with them was showing them what they could do. 
     They were curious how we got money for things.

  Mr. Speaker, the girls stood out in 100-degree Texas humid heat 
serving customers instead of being like many other kids going to the 
local swimming pool. Each day they are open for business, the girls 
learn valuable lessons--lessons about budgets, lessons about 
capitalism, and lessons about life.
  Clara says:

       You learn how to make change. We learned about customer 
     service--that we should always be nice to customers. We 
     learned how to advertise. We donate some of the money to 
     charity to help other people out. We might buy a gift for our 
     brother since he's our new employee.

  After one Lemonade Day in Houston, the girls said that they made 
enough money to ``pay their investors back in full.'' Mr. Speaker, when 
was the last time you heard of a 7-year-old using those business terms?
  These kids are getting on-the-job business training that no 
government--especially the Federal Government--gave them. They are 
practicing Americanism. In the America I know, we teach our kids the 
value of hard work and entrepreneurship. We teach our kids from a young 
age that success does not come without sacrifice. Perseverance and 
responsibility pay off.
  These are the lessons that our children need to learn, not the 
lessons of trying to depend on government. You see, these kids made it 
without government doing anything except getting out of their way.
  So, Mr. Speaker, the next time you see the President, tell him that 
successful businesses in America come from businessowners--even kids--
and not the Federal Government.
  And that's just the way it is.

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