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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Students Get Lesson In Running Business

Ninety ninth-graders nailed, sanded and painted in a frenzy Thursday morning, trying to prepare their products to be marketed.

“We need scissors,” one student yelled. “We cut it wrong,” complained another.

The bird feeders, napkin holders and wooden toys the students made were the end result of a three-day crash course in running a business.

The Greenacres Junior High students learned everything from developing products to ordering supplies to choosing a marketing scheme.

The students were placed in groups of eight or nine in a conference room at the Red Lion Motor Inn. Each group also had a representative from Tidyman’s, the program sponsor, a parent and a teacher.

To be included in the program, students had to fill out applications, and several students did not make the cut. “It had to be perfect,” said Ashley Imus, 15.

Guest speakers explained such aspects of business as: environmental awareness, marketing and taking inventory.

Students had to decide what job they wanted, be it in marketing or production. They had to learn to order parts, develop a finance plan, come up with a slogan and a logo.

Each group chose a name that had to do with wood, since the products they were making all were constructed from wood.

One group’s logo was “Woody Woodpecker.” Another’s name was “Wooden you know.” A third’s was the “Eager Beavers.”

A member of the “Wooden you know” company, Mark Davis, 15, strode out of the room, practicing his delivery on lines like “unsurpassable quality” for his group’s television commercial.

The toughest part for Davis and his group, he said, was “getting everything done in the amount of time we had.” That included filling out numerous forms and ordering supplies, he said.

While making their products, students also had to be careful of waste. Judi Broderius, who’s in charge of environmental affairs for Tidyman’s, kept a sharp eye on the students, walking around to each table, picking up scraps and saying, ‘What are you going to do with this?’

“They’re getting creative,” Broderius said. “They’re trying to have (their waste) down to a thimble size.”

In a banquet held Thursday night, parents were invited to see their children judged and awarded prizes for quality, environmental consciousness, teamwork, marketing and best overall effort.

“Quality is most important,” was the lesson John Knuth, 14, learned. “It doesn’t matter how many you make if you do a really good job.”