The 2nd grade students at The Meadows School in Las Vegas, NV have cooked up a sweet way to give back to their local animal rescue. Through their annual Valentine’s Day Bake Sale, students learned lessons in both entrepreneurship and philanthropy, and this year’s effort raised $5,569.71 for the cause!

The tradition started in 1993 as a way to teach young students lessons in entrepreneurship – how to count money, the concept of supply and demand, the importance of original and unique ideas, etc. – as well as a way to reinforce a key component in the School’s mission – service to one’s community. Says Head of School Jeremy Gregersen, “In addition to learning to make change and a little something about commerce as they sell their baked goods, they more importantly learn about the importance of really banding together to give back to a good cause in our community.”

Since 2003, all proceeds from the annual 2nd grade bake sale have gone to benefit the Nevada SPCA. In the weeks leading up to the bake sale, the students visited the SPCA and began coming up with creative baked goods and other treats to sell to the rest of the community. They spent time designing posters and advertisements, and even stopped by other Lower School classes to promote their baked goodies!

The event is a huge hit on campus, particularly with the upperclassmen who remember their own bake sales years ago. Senior Sander Straus remarked that the event brought him down memory lane, especially all of the sold-out signs at this year’s booths. “My chocolate on a stick went flying off the shelf [when I was in 2nd grade], so I had nostalgic flashbacks whenever I saw those sold-out signs this year.”

In the 15 years that the event has benefited the animal rescue, it has generated over $52,000 for the Nevada SPCA.