JA students enjoy good sales at trade fair

Representing more than 100 schools across Trinidad, the young entrepreneurs enticed members of the public with handmade craft items, personal items such as necklaces, hand bands, earrings, jerseys, as well as household items such as cushions, wall plaques and pillows.

JA executive chairman, J Errol Lewis, congratulated the students for their creativity and perseverance in producing well-crafted items for sale.

He heaped praise on platinum sponsor BP Trinidad and Tobago, and other corporate entities which have been supporting the JA efforts over the years.

Apart from bpTT, other sponsoring companies for 2012 include First Citizens Bank, TTEC, British Gas, Trinidad Cement Limited and Neal & Massy Holdings.

Feature speaker Todd Jungenberg, economic officer, United States Embassy, urged the students to make full use of the opportunities presented by the trade fair. “This project is about education and training and you should make the most of it,” he noted.

Jungenberg applauded the corporate sponsors, JA officers, teachers and students for making the event a success.

“We hope to sell all our items today. The project has been challenging but exciting. We have learnt quite a bit about how to form a company, how to manage it and how to be successful,” said Urmila Ramdhanie, president of Temptationz, one of six companies counselled by bpTT. Comprised of students from Lakshmi Girls’ College, Presentation College (Chaguanas), ASJA Girls’ High School (Charlieville), and Holy Faith Convent (Couva), Temptationz offered for sale costume jewelry, decorative candles and food items.

Kristoffer Gould, president of Mayaro-based Big Money Achievers, said the experience of forming and operating the company was a thrilling one for all 35 students. “We wanted to be creative so we sewed drawstring bags and handcrafted our handbands.

We wanted to make our sponsor bpTT and JA proud of us,” Gould added.

Members of Big Money Achievers came from six schools, Rio Claro East Secondary, Rio Claro West Secondary, Mayaro Secondary, Guayaguayare Secondary, Sangre Grande Secondary and Urbano Private School (Rio Claro).