KidsMarket celebrates 20 years

Christchurch kids have a stab at entrepreneurship.

It is a one-day school in entrepreneurship: six to twelve year olds making and selling baked goods, art work and fancy items, or their unwanted toys and books.

In the high finance world of pre-teens in Christchurch, the KidsMarket in the Cathedral Square in early July is a serious business. There are no clowns and no clowning around, no entertainment except the satisfaction of selling your wares and the pleasure of making a killing during the day.

Some 500 children run their own stalls on a Monday (or a Tuesday, if it rains) in the middle of winter, paying $5 to book a stall, going through the process of registration and validation and selling their own goods. Though supervised by an adult, the actual wheeling and dealing (including price setting and any bargaining) must be done by the kids under whose name the stall is.

What they make they keep, or spend on the interesting goods offered by other kids. The total stall fees, collecting an average $1200 a year, is donated to a children’s charitable group, this year the Cholmondeley Children’s Home in Christchurch.

The Kids Market is a 20 year labour of love by the family Verweij, who inspired by a sick grandson who needed funds for medical treatment, thought to raise money by putting together a kids market. The first Kids Market was set in motion that way but realisation of the many needy kids who required money for their care and treatment, the family dumped the idea of raising funds for their grandson and started raising for all kids who needed it.

“We decided to do something to help other sick children and also give children - within a market situation - the chance to learn how to trade, how to deal with the public, learn how to set up and break down their stall. It’s about gaining confidence and learning creativity by learning to handle money,” says Gloria Verweij. Gloria, with her husband Joe, manages the weekly Cathedral Square Market.