Brown Girls Stationery is a company that Kamaria and her mother, Shaunice started after recognizing the lack of representation within stationery product designs. Her online store offers an array of products such as: backpacks, t-shirts, notebooks, bedspreads, blankets, shower curtains, umbrellas, notepads and party of supplies for girls of color. Her inspiration behind BGS was to develop a brand that Black and Brown girls could identify with. Kamaria believes that it is important to give girls of color something that they can relate to. Several of her designs feature young girls with disabilities and common disorders like Vitiligo. Her hope is to empower anyone who connects with her brands characters so that they are no longer afraid of what makes them unique. She describes her design process as collaborative. The first step in her design process is to examine her surroundings: friends, school and the community to think about what she may want to include in BGS product designs.  The second step Kamaria tackles is creating a Pinterest board that has the colors she wants to use, and the outfit choices in order to help her mom and contracted illustrator get a better feel of what she wants. Lastly, she sends off the final design ideas to her illustrator to complete the drawings. Her favorite part of the process is watching everything come to life as she and her mother use Photoshop and Illustrator to create realistic mock-ups of the final product. This hardworking CEO recently launched her new brand to inspire all kids to become entrepreneurs. Mini CEO Academy provides new kidpreneurs with membership access to a website full of business videos and tools for kids by a kid. At the close of this year BGS will be launching their Little Genius collection to include STEM related designs for both girls and boys. In the next five years, Kamaria want to have her own store where she can print and design for other businesses. She also wants to have her products in large retail stores to expand her reach.

Ryan’s Recycling Company.

In 2012 at the age of 3, Ryan went along with his dad to the local recycling center and cashed in a few small bags of cans and bottles and decided that recycling was in his future. The day after going to the recycling center, Ryan notified his mom and dad that he wanted to give empty plastic bags to all the neighbors and maybe they would save their recyclables for him. Not only did the local neighbors save their cans and bottles for Ryan but so did their friends, families and co-workers. Today, Ryan has customers all over Orange County, CA and he has a passion to recycle that is amazing. His goal is to recycle to keep cans and bottles from reaching the ocean where it’s harmful to the environment. Ryan spends a part of every week sorting thru cans and bottles from his customers and getting them ready to take to the recycle center. Ryan collects and recycles plastic and glass beverage bottles as well as aluminum cans. Ryan and his dad take them in by the truckload regularly to the local redemption center where they are unloaded, sorted and weighed. Ryan is now 13 years old and he has recycled over one million cans and bottles with the goal of inspiring people around the world and keeping trash out of our oceans and landfills. Ryan doesn’t work alone. His parents and grandmother help him in his efforts, and he credits his dad with driving him around. But he also has partnerships in other organizations, including Kidbox, an organization that donates clothes for every package it sells, for which he serves on its kid board of directors. It’s a position that allows him to donate $10,000 worth of clothes every February. Ryan has accomplished alot over the past 10 years and still has many more years to come collecting plastic.

Due to covid-19 many people, unfortunately, lost their jobs. Two Maryland natives, Chris McCasland, a sports and concert industry broker and restaurateur, and Michael Opalski, a senior restaurant industry salesman, both endured a loss of income during the pandemic.

During the pandemic, Chris started exploring new product ideas. He came across the idea of  City Bonfires- portable mini bonfire. He enlisted the help of Mike who came up with the design of the product.

The product is a 4 inch by 2 inch metal tin if filled with non-toxic soy wax melt. City Bonfires entire surface becomes the flame – creating a mobile heat source – a mini bonfire! Each city bonfire is a made with handmade materials.

Online you are able to find anything and everything you need for your mini travel bonfire. They have family kits, Birthday kits, one night kits, and so many more kits to pick and choose from.

The co-founders of city bonfires are both from Maryland. Chris is from German town and Michael is from Easton Maryland. Chris now lives in Potomac with his wife and son, Brooks (5) His dad superpower is grilling. His favorite activity is watching the nationals. And his true parenting confession is that he eats all the Goldfish in the house. Michael also live in Potomic MD, with his wife and two kids. His superpower is keeping it fun. His favorite go to show is the Big Bang Theory. Michaels favorite family dance party song is Lizzo Truth hurts.

“We believe that bonfire nights are the best nights. Gather around our City Bonfire and make memories! As Covid-19 has taught us, life is best spent making memories with our family and friends. So get outside, light up the starry sky and make lasting memories!” said the owners of City Bonfires.