Rebecca Cox, a fourteen-year-old from Nova Scotia, has always been an entrepreneur. Throughout her short life she has been finding new markets to target. One example being her rock selling venture in second grade. But she recently faced a large challenge to her entrepreneurial spirit-Coronavirus lockdowns. Like many other entrepreneurs, she knew she had to adapt. With only the supplies at her own home to start her next venture, Rebecca had to be ingenuitive. She quickly noticed an opportunity. The same material for making masks at home can be repurposed to make scrunchies. Rebecca immediately got to work and posted advertisements. She managed to sell 67 scrunchies, making a profit of $200.
In addition to selling scrunchies, Rebecca started another business in the midst of the pandemic- a small summer day camp. Though initially hesitant about the risks of Coronavirus, she noticed a market desire for a small summer day camp. Parents did not want to send children to large, conventional camps because of the virus. But the parents still had to work and were much more comfortable sending children to a smaller camp. Rebecca and her friend made $1000 in their summer camp service. It is worthy to note that the summer camp was no ordinary summer camp. Rebecca even structured the camp around entrepreneurial activities. She helped the small children in the camp make lemonade and cookies to sell at the curb, allowing them to split the profits.
Rebecca, pictured on the right
Throughout the summer, Rebecca also helped her mother make 800 masks to donate. Now that in person school has started, she has received many more orders for scrunchies.
Rebecca is driven to help others. She is an empathetic person that wanted to help parents, children, and medical workers. What is unique about this child is her work ethic. Most children her age would likely be at home playing games during the lockdown. But Rebecca got to work, managing two businesses and making masks for donation.
Rebecca has the important entrepreneurial trait of recognizing pain and finding opportunity. She recognized the pain of the parents when they needed a safe option for their children while they could work. Rebecca is also a great real-life example of innovation through lack of resources, noted by Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Island, in which there was a lot of diversity despite lack of nutrients. Rebecca was limited by the pandemic and only had a few resources to work with. Her recognition of opportunity and ingenuity with simple materials is very impressive and inspiring.
How awesome is this story! This is such a unique idea and an amazing innovative proposal about the litter of masks everywhere. The amount of masks I see just laying around on the ground and other place and just becoming litter is insane. This could almost be a commercial and social enterprise in it of itself for making scrunchies and other accessory’s. Well done not only by researching this, but ultimately crafting a well-written blog post!