SIDNEY -- In 2023, students of the Panhandle Home-school Co-op showed their vision of business and entrepreneurship to the public.

New students and a new vision resulted in a Christmas "kid-trepreneur" event. The event was held Thursday, December 5, at Boss City Brewing Company. The program is rooted in a business class taught by Jill Sauder. Sauder is also the owner of Savor & Grace.

"The kid-tpreneur started actually last year. So, this is part of our local Panhandle Home-school Co-op. Part of being part of a co-op is a cooperative, right, so what do you have to bring to the table, to the entire group. My contribution as a class is called 'Business Creation' as I am exploring business myself. I've decided to share that with the children. That's a class that I started actually last year was Building a Business," Sauder said.

She said after the students finished their business plans in the first class, the were faced with "ok, now what?" 

"So we decided to start a market. Let's make money off of our ideas. It was our spring market last year that we held over at the Elks. We had a great turnout for that. Everybody was so excited about it, so we decided to do a Christmas market this year. I have a new class, a new group of children. They have come in and again created their own businesses," Sauder said.

The event had a wide range of products and services from locally grown honey, cake pops, handmade pet "bling" and crochet items. 

Sauder said the reward of the event is the business experience and getting paid for the goods or services offered. The reward is also in experiencing the support of the community, according to Sauder.

"Their prizes are the money that they're receiving for their product or services that they are exchanging. It's kind of real world experience for them, real life experience where they're creating these businesses. They're putting in the work of the business and then they are rewarded with the consumer that comes through," she said.

Samara Dyson put her hands to work with a crochet needle.

"I make handmade crochet projects; a wide variety, kitchen supplies and stuffed animals mainly. I learned how to crochet --I taught myself actually -- and, I was running out of money buying yarn. So I needed to earn money to make the things I like to make, and so I started selling my projects," Dyson said.

Her sister Lillian has a similar business. She makes bandanas, bows and ties for dogs and cats.