Great jobs for kids!

GRETCHEN HOLLAND HAS A DREAM.  And it’s not really about recovering a favorite childhood treat from growing up in Maryland eating snowballs.

It’s really about helping kids with disabilities to have real work over the summer, to do great work and serve customers.

And if you can achieve that while delivering something refreshing on a hot day, how fantastic!

OK, first about the snowballs, to explain in Gretchen’s words:

Will this work in Colorado?  Why not?  So far I see a bunch of kids having a great time turning their tongues various colors and making up flavor mixes on the fly.

But remember, it’s really about what this great business is doing to benefit the kids:

It takes some faith and trust to start a venture like this.  Food can be a shaky business sometimes, and food stands are subject to all kinds of variables like weather and local regulation.

So that’s why it’s so crucial to have an unshakeable mission behind this.  Gretchen is doing whatever she can to give these kids a great work environment, useful experience, and some pay at the end of the day.  That’s what it’s all about.

What are the challenges ahead for this business?  They fall into two key categories.  First, there’s always the uncertainties in a mobile food-based business: supplies, power, weather, regulations, and so on.  But more important to Gretchen are her goals to serve the disabled in this community, to help kids who are struggling to have their great first real job.  And it has to work financially, so a lot will depend on what she learns during this first season.

Oh, and I just had to ask about their logo.  It turns out this is simply evocative of Maryland, drawing on the state flag and the iconic crab.

What a great way to introduce a Maryland specialty to Fort Collins!