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Friends,
Yes, fall is always a little overwhelming, but it's also exhilarating! From smelling those brand new crayons to thinking about how TREP$ is going to be even better- it's just a different kind of energy in the air. To help make your TREP$ experience even better, we have some great news! 1. The TREP$ Website is up and every bit as great as we had hoped! Click here to check it out! The site is rich with information, including videos, spotlights, a Marketplace Calendar, and our brand new "Empowering Kids" BLOG! Those interested in guest blogging, please contact me.  2. TREP$ T-shirts are now available to purchase! The price for schools purchasing 25 or more is $12 per shirt (available in sizes from Y-Med to Adult XL) Single T-shirts are available on the website at $18 each. 3. We are creating more Animated Videosto support our 'treps! The first covers how to minimize risk when choosing a product and the second teaches how to create a table display. Look for them by the end of September. Do you share this video with your students' parents?
4. New Resources for our TREP$ Leaders: Last year we introduced "Certificates of Participation" for the 'treps, and this year we offer "Certificates of Appreciation" for volunteers and financial sponsors/community members. E-mail for your copy! 5. Introducing "TREP$ Care." We would like to recognize those students who demonstrate generosity with their profits from TREP$, so we will be including this new section in our TREP$ on TRACK each month. Be sure to recognize your students by submitting their photos!
6. If you are planning a TREP$ Commercial Contest this year. Be sure to send us the link to your winning video so we can share it!
Spotlight TREP$! We have some great write-ups to share with you- written by and about young entrepreneurs we met this fall and winter. Their stories are so inspirational. Scroll down to meet Braydon from Chester M. Stephens School in Mount Olive, NJ, Tessa and Julia from Valley View School in Montville, NJ, and Elena, Elizabeth and Kelly from Our Lady of the Lake in Verona, NJ.
As always, thank you for being a part of this important and extraordinarily fun mission.
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We are so excited to welcome
these five new schools into our
TREP$ Family of Schools!
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| | Why is TREP$ Called TREP$ ? |
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| | TREP$ Music Video with Great Message |
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Students Are Encouraged to Submit Stories!
We are always looking for students to tell their unique stories to our readers.
To see your students' businesses in the Spotlight 'treps" section of the TREP$ on Track, have them submit write-ups about their experiences. With their submissions, they should include a photo of them making their product, posing with their product, or standing at their table. Most write-ups are 250-500 words. Email submissions to pdewaal@trepsed.com.
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Meet Braydon of "Metal Morphosis"
Chester M Stephens School, Budd Lake, NJ
My name is Braydon. I am a fifth grader at Chester M Stephen's Elementary School in Budd Lake NJ. This is the second year our school has had the TREP$ program and I was really excited to be a part of it this year!
Metal Morphosis was an idea inspired by a local artist and friend of mine, Bob Tygar. He helped me start a design of the dragonfly out of spark plugs and silverware. 
Then my Dad helped me continue the production. Each piece is unique and the design comes to me as I mold the hot metal silverware into a work of Art. I enjoyed looking for the silverware at thrift shops, garage sales and even had family and friends donate their old pieces. I even made my Aunt a special piece from my late Grandfather's silverware. The fishing lures actually work! I tried one myself and caught a nice fish!
I was really excited to sell these pieces of Art at the TREP$ Marketplace. I was hopeful that people would like my product as much as I was proud of it. I knew that I needed to price each piece appropriately but also make it affordable to my peers. I ended up selling almost all my products and even had to take over a dozen orders. The next day there was still a buzz about the Marketplace and I even got more orders.
Though this project was started by enrolling into the TREP$ program, I hope to continue to make these special pieces and come up with more ideas to grow my collection. I hope one day to be a Mechanic like my Dad, as well as a certified welder. I may even hire my Dad and my friend Bob if I need help. I would use the money from Metal Morphosis to one day open a Bait and Tackle shop on a lake somewhere.
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Meet Tessa and Julia of "T & J Hair Wraps"
Valley View School, Montville, NJ
My name is Tessa and together with my best friend, Julia, we participated for the first time in the TREP$ program. We are both in 4th grade and had such a fun time creating our business and product together.
Our business was called T&J Hair Wraps and we sold decorative hair wraps for girls' hair that can be taken in and out easily.
When I was visiting my grandparents in Florida we went to Legoland and there was a booth there where you could get hair wraps. You could either sit there and let the girl wrapped your own hair or you could purchase one on display and just clip it in and go. Because I wanted to keep moving and get on more rides, I bought the clip on one.
Julia and I agreed this would be a great product to sell. We could make them in all different colors and designs and girls could buy them and wear them whenever they wanted. So we did ones with our school colors and others with pretty beads at the ends. Then Julia found beads with letters on them and we were able to even make custom ones with the customers' initials. We created order forms and were able to offer them personalized.
Julia couldn't attend the marketplace and I was a little nervous to sell them alone. But right away so many girls came over and started buying them. They loved the idea! The Marketplace went so well we sold out! Julia and I had such a great experience that my mom said we could even start selling them in her children's boutique if we wanted. We can't wait for next year to try to come up with another great idea.
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Meet Elena, Elizabeth and Kelly of "Soaps and Such"
Our names are Elena, Elizabeth, and Kelly. We have been friends for over eight years. We are seventh grade students at Our Lady of the Lake School in Verona. TREP$ has been a part of our school for two years, and we have been looking forward to being able to participate in TREP$. We have been talking
about our idea ever since.
We have always been interested in bath products and more, so it was a "no-brainer" what we would name our business, "Soaps and Such". We were very excited to make our products, which ended up being up being quite a long process.
We spent a lot of time in the kitchen experimenting with ingredients. Whether it was too much citric acid, or not enough Epsom salts, our products ended up coming out wrong somehow each time. We tried online recipes, our own recipes, and too much more. Once we finally thought our products themselves were perfect, we had to work on our scents. We mixed essential oils for hours, until we figured out perfect scent combinations. "Sandalwood and Amber", "Lavender Vanilla", and "Citrus Sun", were some of our most successful scents. Next, was color. We tried soap dye, however didn't find the color vibrant enough. We finally decided on a mix of soap dye and food coloring, and tested it many times. Luckily it didn't dye the skin at all. We figured out many different aspects of our products, such as the bath bombs being fizzy enough, but also being good for your skin, Or melting and molding our soaps to the perfect design and texture.
After many days in the kitchen experimenting with ingredients, our products finally started to come together. We created bath bombs, soaps, lotions, perfumes, candles, and more. We thought long and hard about pricing. Considering our target audience was students buying for Mother's Day, and parents, teachers, and students buying for themselves, we tried to
make our prices as reasonable as possible, ranging from 1-6 dollars.
Selling at the TREP$ Marketplace was an interesting experience. In the first and last hours, many people stopped and purchased our products. However, for an hour or so in the middle, business was somewhat quiet. We wanted to advertise, but didn't want to seem like a pushy mall kiosk employee that is always bothering you while shopping. However, we made it all work, and we had made much more than we had expected.
The TREP$ Marketplace exceeded our expectations! By the end of the Marketplace we made $300. After we paid off our expenses, our profit was $220. TREP$ was a great experience. We learned so much and can't wait to participate again next year.
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