The smell of fresh cookies has now reached a Lightning Quick gas station near you, all thanks to one middle school student. Estee Herendeen is an eighth-grader at CMS this year who took an entrepreneurship class with teacher Mike Arbuckle. Herendeen started selling her infamous cookies as a simple class project, and they are now sold at all eleven Lightning Quick gas stations! The project was for all the students to come up with any business idea they had an interest in. They took the time to learn everything about what it took to get the business started and how to properly run a business.
Estee has always loved baking and thought it would be a fun way to show off her talents. “ I chose baking because it’s been something that I have always loved since I was a little girl, and I always had so much fun in the kitchen,” she explains. “You can make so many amazing things, and it also helps that my family supported me in everything.”
Estee’s business isn’t the only one in the family growing, as she sells her cookies at all 11 Lightning Quick gas stations that her brothers own. She speaks about how her brother thought that this could be an amazing opportunity for her to not only start making a little money of her own, but do a lot of learning.
Considering Estee is still only in middle school, lots of people may wonder how this will affect her day-to-day life. Herendeen is a three sport athlete and an amazing student, and does not intend to let baking get in the way of her normal life. “The way I balanced school and baking was I made my weekdays all for school so I could focus on school and sports,” she says. “Then I decided that I would take my weekends to bake.” she dedicates her entire Saturday to baking most weekends, and it takes her around 10 hours. On Sundays right after her travel softball practices, she and her mom make their deliveries, which would typically take around three hours to complete. For most teens, this would seem overbearing and interrupt their social life, but Estee has gotten a great schedule planned out so that everything can run smoothly.
Mr. Arbuckle teaches the entrepreneurship class at CMS with the hopes of helping students develop the mindset, skills, and confidence to identify opportunities, solve real-world problems, and turn their ideas into actionable business concepts. He wanted the kids to create a business around something they are passionate about because they will be more likely to push through when setbacks occur and they will care enough to keep improving. He says, “Amanda and I were on our way to Reading for one of Avery’s basketball games, and I stopped at Lightning Quick in Litchfield. I was up at the cash register and saw the packages. I was so excited to see her work become a reality. She has tremendous talent, and I’m super proud of her.” Everyone who knows Estee knows that this has been a huge accomplishment for her and is extremely proud of the work she has done this far.
With all of this happening at only 15 years old, support from family and friends means a lot to Estee. “Sometimes it could be really hard and stressful, especially when it comes to managing my time. But whenever things got hard, I could always ask my mom to help me when things got hard, and she always would, and I am very grateful for that.” Estee speaks very highly of how much help her mom can be, and she expresses how grateful she will always be for her support.
Arbuckle shares a few words of encouragement for Estee as she begins this new journey: “Roughly 80% of businesses fail within the first 18 months primarily due to lack of market demand or financial mismanagement. This will not be the case with Estee. What
she makes is not your ordinary cookie, the presentation and taste are top notch. She’s winning at this and keeping customers coming back, which is exactly what you need for long term success.” Not only do these words show the support that Herendeen has behind her, but the faith that everyone who knows her has that she will succeed in everything she does.
While Estee loves baking and can see it as something that she could do for a while, she is not sure she wants it to be her future career. Herendeen has always loved the thought of going to nursing school just as much as her dream of baking, but she thinks it could be a great side hustle in her free time. Be sure to go and support Estee at your local Lightning Quick and try her amazing cookies.
