FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. (July 16, 2023) The First Annual Palm Coast Children Business Fair hosted by founder and director of Culinary Wellness; Maria Delgado, took place at the Hammock Community Center on Saturday, July 15. This event marks an important point in Palm Coast by creating an opportunity for children of all ages to get involved with business while showcasing their creativity.
“For me it was very important that we provide a platform for the children to showcase their products and services,” Maria said. “No one here in Palm Coast, in the last four years that I’ve been here has done anything like this.”
The event was open to all young entrepreneurs across the state and a dozen attended to demonstrate their business acumen.
Each child brought their own unique spark, creating many easy at home projects. Parents were excited to see their child’s business ideas on display after providing support throughout development, and the young entrepreneurs said they enjoyed spending time with their parents during the process.
Meet the Entrepreneurs…
Crafting Hands business co-owners Suchita and Nikita Mitchell brought an array of products to the expo. Offering their hand-crafted candles, necklaces, bracelets, and mango jelly, the two sisters explained the development processes behind some of their products. Both proud to show off their love for their craft but also for each other, it was clearly a labor of love.
“My favorite is the candles that we made; each one has a different scent to them and my favorite one has to be the pink one, it smells like vanilla,” Suchita said before sharing details on their jelly recipe.
“For the mango jelly we use only three ingredients, mangos from our garden, we use pectin to make it jelly texture and we use sugar to make it nice and sweet. It’s all organic and it doesn’t use bad chemicals.” Suchita said.
“I really had fun making the mango jelly and the candles,” added Nikita.
Inspired by his dream of purchasing a Nintendo Switch, Woven Warrior founder Sam Perez is practicing corporate social responsibility from a young age by sponsoring Yaser a pen pal in Nicaragua.
“There is no FaceTime for him because he lives in a poor state, so he has to send letters and I write him back, so he needs help, his writing is in cursive, so my dad has to read it,” explained Perez.
Perez has a clear-cut plan for his company’s profits.
“Ten percent to the church, twenty percent goes to him, and the rest goes to me.”
Artisan Avery O’Dond’s most unique product was the Harry Potter inspired wands, interestingly enough coinciding with rumored visit of Emma Watson.
“My business is just selling art, I sell canvas paintings, wands, I did want to start selling rocks, but I just decided to sell canvases and wands today.”
“After watching the movie Harry Potter, I decided that the wands in that movie were really, really nice, so I decided to try and make my own. And I ended up just started selling them,” said Avery.
Other businesses at the expo offered a variety of goods and services including car detailing services from Pistol Pete’s, gourmet ‘Delicious Cookies’ by brothers Timofei and Fedor, art demos by Elise’s Spin Art, Para-Crafts, Beads of Joy by Aubrey, and Kali’s Kreations, just to name a few.
Focusing on one of the main priorities of a good business, Gabriela Guerrera’s handwritten notes for each customer highlighted her dedication to personalized customer service. Starting her business Serenity and Tranquility as a result of a personal experience her empathetic approach to business ensures each customer feels valued.
“It started off by having a stressful move and tranquility brought in the peace from my name, brought me peace making them through my anxiety and serenity is giving it to others, so I like to spread my news and touch people’s hearts by loving messages and my cute bracelets.”
“I also focus on customer service with reviews to see how they feel.”
Palm Coast Children’s Business Fair founder Maria Delgado hopes that this will be the first of many of this type of event.
“I am really happy that I am spearheading this event and I appreciate all the children that have you know signed up to participate,” said Delgado. “I love them all and I think they all have their own unique talents and I think all of them are just amazing.”
