We give a Poop!

I am 14, and my sister is 17 and we run a small business that helps make big dreams come true.
It all started in December 2003 when we were shopping for our teacher’s Christmas presents. We were looking on the Internet and we saw a neat idea called Reindeer Poop,which was little bag with chocolate covered almonds. We thought we could do something like this ourselves so we came up with snowman poop, a chocolate dipped spoon with marshmallows. I got on the computer, made some labels and we had fun dipping spoons in chocolate. The packaging looked really great and so did the spoons. We even sprinkled sprinkles over the spoons when the chocolate was still soft. Our Christmas lists were long and Mom kept telling us that Santa was on a budget this year, so we thought it would be really cool if we could sell a few bags of poop and make some extra money for the Boxing Day sales. This became our goal. We decided to take our prototype and go to some of the stores in our small town of Summerland, B.C. and see if they wanted to carry it.

We went to six stores and every store ordered a case of 24 Snowman Poop. We were so shocked! We got friends together and cranked up the Christmas music and got busy dipping over one hundred and fifty spoons. Another goal related to this was to donate a portion of what we earned to a charity because our community has so much that other kids don’t. We looked on the Internet and came across a program through UNICEF that educates girls in third world countries. We decided to donate 25 percent of our earnings to this charity. On Boxing Day we each proudly checked off our goal and had $100 to spend on the after Christmas sales and we braved the crowds and bought a few nice things. It was awesome how an idea came to life.

Summerland Snowman Poop was such a great seller, we heard that it was sent as far away as England! We liked to think that kids were drinking hot chocolate all over the world and enjoying our spoons.
Our next goal was to develop a summer product for the tourists who visit our area so that we could earn enough money to travel across the country to Montreal and meet our large eastern family that we've never met. An idea was born! We thought since we live in the Okanagan and it is home to the legendary lake monster the Ogopogo, it would be fun to create “Ogopogo Poop” We used green jelly beans in a bag for the poop and designed a cute label. It was inexpensive and just a fun souvenir for the tourists. We took it around the Okanagan and ended up having Ogopogo Poop in over fifteen stores around the Okanagan. Word got out and we were on four radio interviews and lots of newspaper reviews that summer. We even got nominated for an EDDY award (entrepreneur awards for youth) and ended up walking away with two awards.
We accomplished a very big goal and saved up enough money to take our family out to Montreal to visit our dad’s family that fall. It was so much fun to meet all of our cousins and learn some French. We donated over $250 to UNICEF! And an extra donation was presented to our local Olympic downhill skier hopeful Kristy Richards.

In the winter of 2004, we made Snowman Poop again but with a little more pizazz! We jazzed up our bags and labeling and made it look fantastic. This time the business really grew; we dipped and sold over 600 spoons. Our goal also grew. In April 2005 we traveled to Mexico We knew someone that had just been down to Mexico and they told us that there were very poor people living in the dump! We then connected with a lady who works with the people of the dump (And by dump I mean an 80 ft tall mountain of garbage). This amazing lady is 80 years old and has been helping people in Mexico for thirty years. She told us that they needed clothes, shoes, diaper pants and diaper pins [because Pampers and Huggies were much too expensive for them to afford].

We ended up collecting as much clothes, shoes, school supplies and baby items we could find and we packed up over 200 lbs of stuff to bring. Together with our friends we filled over 80 big zip lock bags for the kids with toys, toothbrushes and small goodies. Our local dentist, church and neighbors helped collect and donate items and we were ever so grateful.

When we met Vera [the lady that works with people at the dump] she glowed like an angel, she was so happy and cheerful. We were nervous and excited about what we were going to see when we arrived at the dump. Vera told us that we were going to the top. We didn't quite know what that meant, but it made us more curious. When we got there she told us not to complain about the smell because the people might be offended. We drove right into the small community surrounding the 80 ft mountain of waste and people were waving and saying, “VERA! VERA!” They were happy people which made us more happy to be there. We continued to drive all the way up to the top to find people searching through the dump to find anything they could sell for money or use for their houses. We got out of the car, opened the back of the SUV and brought out our suitcases filled with clothes and supplies. People started surrounding us and when we brought out an item people would tap us on the shoulders and say, “Me, Me.” And sometimes there were girls around our age patting there stomachs saying “Baby, Baby” and we would pass them some baby clothes. Some lady just handed our Mom a baby so she could get closer and get something.

After handing out all of our supplies we went to the grocery store and bought rice, beans, water, soap and buns for 30 families. It was enough to last a week and only cost $80. We went back to the dump and went around to their houses and handed out bags of supplies. The people were very grateful! Their houses did not look like houses at all. They looked more like piles of garbage, it was very sad to see roofs made of cardboard and floors made of dirt. We hate to think what happens when it rains, all of the toxics running off the dump could make someone very ill and they would be up to their knees in mud. I'll never forget the beautiful smiles of the children saying “Gracias.” [thank-you].

After handing out food to the families we went to a small community not far from the mountain and went to the small school and helped teach English. It was so cute listening to the kids try and say phrases like “he is sleeping” or “she is running”. Vera told us about a lady we saw, she told us that she is a mother with 7 kids, her husband left her and she was living in a house without a proper roof or concrete floors. It is Vera's mission as well as ours to earn money to help them build roofs and floors.

It really makes you think when your friends are bragging about their new expensive gadgets, when some people really have nothing. There is so much poverty in our world that needs more attention. If people started paying more attention to it there wouldn't be as much to worry about. You don't have to be an adult to be able to help, just be creative. Our next dream is to learn Spanish and go back to Mexico in 2007 and bring our friends (who work hard to help us) and put concrete floors and roofs on the houses. We want to spend more time there and bring lots shoes with us. We saw a 3 year old baby walking with large adult sized shoes on and some kids were bare feet at the dump. We have so much extra shoes and clothes here between all our friends and family, it's just finding way to get it there. The airlines only allow you to bring a certain amount. We do talks and present pictures from our trip to our schools and clubs. We have our class at school working on raising money for the roofs and floors. We have put on a Mexican food lunch in our school and our girls club sold hand made origami Christmas ornaments. . Vera has been using our donations to pour concrete floors and she put in 3 bathrooms for families. One family who has 3 daughters our age got a pink toilet and sink, how cool is that?

In December 2007 we went back to Mexico and visited some of the families we met before and helped out a few new families. We spent one afternoon with a family of eight kids, it was the thirteen year olds birthday so we brought dinner and tons of gifts for the entire family. We also donated money to help the 15 year old go to computer school. The group of girls that we volunteer with at the church raised enough money to buy another family concrete for their floor, bricks for a septic system, a wash basin and a water tank, that we helped install while we were there. The trip was amazing yet again and we plan to keep returning to the same area to help others.

Everyone has been very supportive of our business and our cause. We even found out that our Poop products have traveled as far as London, Australia and the Yukon.

This experience has changed my life in so many ways! I believe that there are more important things in life than things.

Goal setting has been a big part of how we run our business and has helped us acheive our dreams. Such great things are happening!!

We are very glad we have the opportunity to learn about running a successful business that helps put a smile on peoples faces and are grateful to be helping people less fortunate than ourselves. Even kids can make a difference!

Our goal is to keep returning back to Mexico to help pour more concrete floors and maybe help build proper roofs. It would be a big DREAM to be able to bring some of our friends to help and have this amazing experience.

WE GIVE A POOP!! I know you do too!
Like Walt Disney said, “If you can dream it you can do it!”