Editor’s Note: Each of the six businesses at the Young and Bright Pop Up Shop will be featured individually throughout the week to give each business its own spotlight.
Winderson’s Creation’s Mary Pettenger and greener goods Tara Allen know what it’s like to be a small business owner. The duo, who have formed a relationship through their close proximity in Sangamon on Main, decided to extend an opportunity to young business owners in the Young and Bright Pop Up Shop on Aug. 22.
The event showcased nine young entrepreneurs with a wide variety of services and products.
“I had no idea there were so many little entrepreneurs in Mahomet,” Allen said. “They’re so cute and they’re so good at what they do.”
“We saw them out there and knew that they needed, probably a place to come and just share all their stuff,” Pettenger said.
Allen said it’s the theme across Sangamon on Main, “stronger together.”
“We are super supportive of each other as businesses, and so it was nice to have the opportunity to support the younger kids that really, during this COVID crisis, have started their businesses and found their passion.”
With the Mahomet Farmer’s Market outside on the sidewalk, Allen and Pettenger knew that an extension into the building where children could offer their goods would be beneficial to all.
“We’ve had a great turnout,” Pettenger said. “As often as the kids want to come back and do it, I’d be willing to host them in here and then of course we have the room in the hallway.”
P&J Glass
Eight-year-old Joshua Oliger and seven-year-old Preston Mara want you to know one thing: they’ve got fused glass to sell.
What started out as a way to spend time with his grandma, Preston took to fusing hand-cut glass about a year ago.
When he introduced his best friend, Joshua, to the process, the boys knew that they could be onto something special.
“They started doing more and having so much fun that they wanted to come over all the time,” Preston’s grandma Diana Hanson said. “So then they decided upon themselves that they could start a business.”
It’s been a couple weeks, but P&J Glass is catching attention with their glass dishes, sun catchers, coasters, and flower plant sticks. The boys booth was a popular stop at Saturday’s Young and Bright Pop Up Shop at Sangamon on Main.
“The boys have come up with all kinds of ideas of how they can sell it and what they can make and how they can do it,” Diana said. “And so each piece that they make and design is named by them. And then it’s engraved on the back.”
With pieces named “Pole Vault” after seeing a line in the design or “Fat Yoda” because the pieces were put together to represent Yoda, Preston and Joshua believe that as they become famous, early pieces will become more valuable.
“They’re learning safety, they’re learning discipline, they’re learning design, they’re learning so many things with this,” Diana said. “Each week, I tried to teach them something more. And so they have a list of questions and answers that they have to learn in order to grow in this.”
