Warren Miller Freedom Foundation is on the move!
After enjoying three successful years in the Seattle schools and community centers, we are on the move! In January 2009, the Missoula, Montana Flagship After-School Program is piloting Young Entrepreneurs. Several other sites in Montana are signing up also starting soon after the new year. Laurie and Warren traveled to Montana recently to support the launch of the pilot program. (Read the article) Also in January, the program will be combined with an entrepreneurship class at Aspen High in Colorado giving those students the opportunity to start businesses.
Supporters of new programs include The Puget Sound Skills Center in Highline, Boys and Girls Clubs, Girl Scouts in Auburn, YMCA after school classes and areas such as Issaquah, Bellingham, Bellevue, many more in Seattle and Mammoth, Ca.
Our entrepreneurship classes are filling a need. Most young people do not take business classes in secondary school. The YE program offers an opportunity to learn business skills and self-reliance in a supportive environment.
Start a program in your area!
The YE program is anticipating accelerated growth and is moving toward self-sustained program instruction. The sponsoring organization supplies the mentors who are instructed and guided by the Warren Miller Freedom Foundation materials and its directors. Anyone who is interested in starting a class please contact us through our website www.warrenmiller.org. Each organization will sign a collaboration/copyright protection agreement in order to receive materials for the classes. The materials will be offered at no cost to the student or sponsoring organization.
NEW! “Speaker Series Dinner” at Canlis Restaurant!
The Inaugural Speaker Series Benefit Dinner was a Complete Success!
With over 90 honored guests and family gathered in the Canlis Restaurant Penthouse in Seattle, Washington, we could not have asked for more overwhelming support.
A host of entertaining speakers, remarkable live and silent auction items, and an outstanding dinner all contributed to an unforgettable evening. Thanks to many generous donations, we were able to successfully move forward with another year of inspiring our Young Entrepreneurs and begin to expand the YE Program as a whole.
A special thanks is due to Clark B. Winter Jr., author of The Either/Or Investor, for his illuminating and interesting address as our Keynote Speaker!
We are also very fortunate to have such fantastic corporate support as Brotherton Cadillac GMC for their sponsorship of the Speaker’s Dinners, as well as Warren Miller Company.
One Student’s Success
Musie’s family is from Ethiopia. He is a first generation American who constantly struggles to balance his traditional beliefs with being a typical American teenage boy. Once Musie took part in the YE program, he began to understand why his parents constantly remind him, “We are lucky to be in America son”. Free enterprise means the opportunity to own and operate a business. Musie started a car detailing business. He started small and simple: a bucket, soap, & towels. Initially the business was slow due to the winter weather. Although, once spring rolled around he began to make some money, and understand exactly what his parents were saying. Musie is currently seeking a cab service contract his car detailing business.
See what Musie has to say...
For a long time I wanted to make my own money. I never knew how to do it. The young entrepreneur program has taught me that. I started a car wash business, to me it was simple I did not need a lot of materials and it was something everybody could use. At first I made $75 but when the weather was good. Now it is not so good. So I offer a car detailing service, I clean the inside of the cars, and windows. The class has taught me that good customer service makes a big difference. I call my past customers and ask them if they need me to do it again, I want them to I care. I hope that when the weather is nicer I will get more business. I keep all my customers information and that will make things easier.
-Musie
Entrepreneurship: 
Stories from Warren Miller
When I joined the Boy Scouts at the age of twelve my patrol leader collected mistletoe. During Christmas vacation I would ride two miles to my Scoutmaster’s home and pick up a load of mistletoe that he had gathered. I would then ride four miles in the other direction and sell small bunches of it to the shoppers. I was his best salesman during the Christmas holidays, as I wandered the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard, asking folks if they would like some mistletoe. I was paid a 50% commission and on a good long day I would sell as many as fifty bunches. With the mix of prices I was able to earn three or four dollars a day. My record for one day was 52 bunches or $5.20, an unheard of amount of money in those days, 1936.
Again, working on commission, even though selling for someone else, is working one’s own business as one must be inventive and have good work ethics.
-W.M.
My Experience as a Mentor: Changing Lives...
“My experience has been rewarding on many different levels. Delivering the Young Entrepreneurs program on behalf of the Warren Miller Freedom Foundation has provided me with a platform to change the lives of young people. I’ve had the pleasure to see first hand the power of knowledge and transformation.
Over the course of delivering the YE program I’ve seen youth take charge and make a commitment to success and independence. The curriculum provides the blue print for success, and once the teens begin to apply the valuable lessons to their own lives the transformation begins. The youth become empowered and develop a persona of achievement.
To be part of such a powerful transformation in a teen’s life is priceless; the lessons which the Young Entrepreneurs program provides are lessons of life and success. It has been a rewarding experience to know I have been part of something so special.”
– Idris Beauregard, Lead YE Program Mentor
A Big Thank You to all of our Supporters!!
As always, the directors, staff, volunteers, and students of the Warren Miller Freedom Foundation and the Young Entrepreneurs Program want to extend our deepest gratitude to all of our supporters.
A big thank you as well goes to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Seattle Public Schools, the YMCA and other nonprofit organizations for providing safe and productive environments for our youth.
We are also very fortunate to have such fantastic corporate support as Brotherton Cadillac GMC for their sponsorship of the Speaker’s Dinners, as well as Warren Miller Company.
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