Youths flex their business acumen at the latest Jr. Entrepreneur Fair

By Mike Chaldu · Sat Aug 15 2026

Young sellers turn hobbies and pastimes into budding businesses, and show off their wares at Solvang Park

By Mike Chaldu

Local youths again got to show off their creative, selling, and business skills July 29 during the latest Junior Entrepreneur Fair, held at Solvang Park during a busy Wednesday evening.

The fair, organized by the Solvang Parks and Recreation Department in partnership with the Solvang Chamber of Commerce, was started in January 2023 to give kids an avenue to market projects and hobbies they have, and learn about conducting a business and all the things that go into it.

Parks and Rec soon established a second fair in the summer, held on a Wednesday night during the Susan Williams Summer Music Series and the weekly farmers market nearby, giving the young entrepreneurs a ready-made crowd and potential customers to engage with.

Jaylen Gragston of Solvang Parks and Rec was overseeing the operation of the fair, and explained the preparation to each fair.

"We have a few workshops leading up to this, where the kids have a game plan on what they're going to display and talking about budgeting, presentation, and customer relations," Gragston said. "And then in a couple days we're going to talk about this and see what went right, and what can be improved on at the next one."

Gragston was impressed with the youths and their ideas at the fair.

"This is one of my favorite things to do," he said. "It's great seeing what these kids come up with and how creative they are."

One popular table at the fair was that of 14-year-old Joe Brown, who had a table full of products he made from his 3-D printer.

"I was able to get my own 3-D printer a few years and learned to make a lot of things with it," said Brown, amid a table full of small toys, lamps, and 3-D sculptures.

However, Brown said his most popular are the lightboxes he makes that can by hung as wall decorations or signs.

"I have a program where you can take a picture and put it on a lightbox," he said. "I can do custom orders for that, like a business' logos and signs."

However, Brown has even more ideas to put into action.

"I'm really big into model trains, so now I 3-D print my own model trains," he said. "And, I'm a big history fan, and my recent project was 3-D printing a 1:6 scale Sherman tank. It's about 4 feet long, and I'm thinking about printing some of those up and selling them."

Other tables had their own projects to sell. Siblings Nolan and Savannah Maurer were at adjoining tables with their products. Nolan had some miniatures on sale he created from Legos, while Savannah had some sketches along with some fused-glass art.

"My grandma makes fused glass stuff, and she lets me do some of my own using her kiln," Savannah said. "I've been doing this for a year and a half and really enjoy it."

Down the way, while most of the youths had products and projects to sell, 11-year-old Robert Muro had another idea: He created a small games area where he allowed visitors to take part in games in order to get prizes.

"I got the idea from the carnival games you always see at the county fairs and other events that have the rides and midways," Muro said. "I have this roll of the dice which have different options on them, and this one I call Ring of Fire [on a cornhole board] where people try to get balls into the hole, and another where you try to toss the balls into the basket over here."

Muro said he currently saving up his money to buy a vending machine and use that as a source of income.

"I'd like to have the ones with snacks, sodas, and the like to put in laundromats or in front of stores," he said.

There's no word yet on when the next Jr. Entrepreneur Fair, but chances are you can expect one in January 2027 at the Solvang Veterans Building.