Young entrepreneurs featured at Plum’s Monday Market

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Talk about a gift that keeps on giving, and teaches a life lesson, to boot.

“I wanted a bike last year, and instead, my dad bought me a log splitter,” 11-year-old Wyatt Sheaffer said. “And to buy my bike, I just split a lot of wood and make some money.”

He brought plenty of firewood to add to his earnings during Kids Vendor Day, a special event at Plum’s Monday Market attracting about four dozen young entrepreneurs on Aug. 7.

“They don’t often get recognized for the neat things that they make and what they could sell, so we thought it would be a great opportunity for kids to be seen in the borough in a different way,” said Meredith Hedeen, who coordinates the market.

In Wyatt’s case, the product of his log splitter piques plenty of interest in his Plum neighborhood.

“I have a little stand at home for it, and I’ll have people come around sometimes,” he said. “They’ll text my dad or my mom and they’ll say, ‘Hey, we want some firewood.’ ”

For Sadie Ambrust, also 11, her entrepreneurial experience goes all the way back to when she could start helping her mother, Melanie, make confections for what eventually became Sadie’s Hardtack Candy, complete with business cards.

“We use sugar and corn syrup. We boil it, and once it hits a certain temperature, we lay it down to cool and break it off,” Sadie said, describing a process passed down from her great-grandmother.

Then comes the flavoring, resulting in varieties including blue raspberry, grape, cotton candy, root beer, bubblegum, clove and piña colada. As for Sadie’s favorite:

“I would have to say banana or … hmmm. Cinnamon.”

And as far as the West Deer resident’s motivation:

“Money.”

Speaking of which, the kid vendors are donating a portion of their proceeds to nonprofits, such as the Plum Food Pantry.

“I think it’s fantastic, these young entrepreneurs,” Plum Mayor Harry Schlegel said, in between buying some of their offerings. “They’re doing something constructive with their time during the summer, and they’re bringing it down here.”

More entrepreneurs

Cadence and Chloe Feerst, who will be seniors at Plum High School, brought items produced in their 13 beehives. Their business, the ingeniously named Bee Feerst Honey, has a new line of lip balms made by the sisters.

“It’s pretty simple. You just put the wax in a pot and melt it. Then you put any flavor you want in it,” Cadence said, with the likes of strawberry kiwi, vanilla, wintergreen, watermelon and the apparently popular piña colada.

Other flavorful offerings are honey straws, which are exactly as the name suggests: drinking straws filled with a healthy dose of the sweet, viscous liquid.

“We actually started being interested in bees when our dad found a tree that had a hive in it. We got so fascinated with it that we started a few years ago,” Chloe said about their entrepreneurial venture.

More Kids Vendor Day participants included Anna and Sienna Hedeen, Meredith’s daughters, who are the latest in a line of entrepreneurs: Grandfather John owns Hedeen Electric Services, and Dad, another John, developed the award-winning DrillMagnet, a device that prevents metal shavings from falling during work on ceilings.

For that matter, Meredith owns a company called Ethical Hope, which offers fair-trade products from around the world.

During the Monday Market, Anna Hedeen sold items she crocheted, including an array of finely detailed animal figures, and Sienna had bags of homemade “puppy chow.”

Their mother is impressed with the growth of the market this year, from a handful of vendors at the opening in June to 30, plus a record 600-plus shoppers, by the end of July.

“I’m so grateful to have so many vendors be interested,” Meredith Hedeen said. “Every week, I have more vendors asking me if they can come and set up, and what’s great is it’s free for them to attend. So we’re giving new entrepreneurs an opportunity, too, to be seen and to have their wares purchased.”

‘We hope it continues to grow’

New to the market this year is J&M Farms from Armstrong County, with milk-based products including soap, lotion, sunscreen, lip balm and sugar scrubs.

“I make it all, myself, and our milk currently comes from our goat Sarah,” said Mariah Reilly, the “M” in the business name. “She’s very generous.”

The “J” is her boyfriend, Jacob Morran, and the couple raise the domesticated ruminants.

“This past year, I had an abundance of milk and didn’t know what else to do with it,” Reilly said. “I love skin care, so I started making soap and lotions with it.”

As for using goat’s milk:

“It has natural ceramides in it, which help retain the moisture barrier in your skin, and also it has lactic acid, which helps break down the dead skin particles,” Reilly explained. “It’s very beneficial.”

As for the success of this year’s Monday Market, Plum officials are taking it as a positive as they look forward to moving the venue in 2024, from Plum Creek Park to the new municipal complex at 2000 Old Mine Road.

“We hope it continues to grow, and hats off to Meredith,” said Mona Costanza, assistant to the borough manager. “She’s done a fantastic job building this.”

And as for Kids Vendor Day, Schlegel couldn’t have been more impressed and supportive.

“There’s the future. Some of those young kids are going to start their own businesses when they get older and become successful,” he said. “Now, I have to go buy a lemonade. I said I’d be back.”

Plum’s Monday Market is held from 4 to 7 p.m. weekly, except for Labor Day, through Sept. 25 at Plum Creek Park, 1040 Ross Hollow Road.

Harry Funk is a Tribune-Review news editor. You can contact Harry at [email protected].

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