By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

CALERA – A group of young entrepreneurs set up tables and sold their wares at the Church at Shelby Crossings Dec. 11.

The kids are members of the Created for a Purpose program, a homeschool fine arts co-op that meets weekly for students through ninth grade.

Crystal Storey, a mom of one of the students involved, taught a business entrepreneurship class to the CAP students. For their final project, the students, grades fourth through ninth, held a trade show to display their business plans and final products.

“They created business cards and fliers. They really outdid themselves,” Storey said. “They wrote a list of what they like to do and enjoy to do, then worked on it every week since September.”

Kallie Smith, a fifth grader, created Kallie’s Koko and sold five-cup packs of hot chocolate.

“We get together every week and get assignments. We learned how to make fliers, how to market and how to be a good entrepreneur,” Smith said.

Seventh-grader Katie Hood developed her own line of cosmetics by adding moisturizers to powders or foundations to create a concealer. She also created a variety of soaps.

Three brothers banded together to bake in Three Guys Café with the slogan “Delicious. Homemade. Guaranteed.”

“Our dad suggested the idea because I always have a lot of fun baking stuff,” said John David Wolfe, a ninth grader. “For class, I brought my brothers into it.”

Wolfe, along with brothers James and Thomas, created monster cookies, “Mom’s Granola” and other sweet treats for the trade show. The brothers also can bake made-to-order batch cookies or cookie cakes.

Another sibling group created the Snack Shack. Tenth grader Matthew Renna, seventh grader Theresa Renna and fourth grader Angela Renna have the shack “up and running” every week during the co-op. The dark chocolate Dove bars are the best sellers, and the siblings donate 10 percent of the profits to a good cause.

Isaiah Young created Isaiah’s Paracord Bracelets, which he called “stylish, yet useful.” Young learned to make the bracelets in his Boy Scout troop, and said they looked cool, so he decided to pursue the product for his project.

“You will always have rope on your hand. In case you’re ever in the woods alone, you need rope to do a lot of things,” Young said.