Welcome to Kids' Entrepreneur Market — I'm so glad you found us. If you're here, I have a feeling we already have something in common.
It started the way a lot of good things do: with kids, cardboard boxes, and way too much ambition. My own children were obsessed with their lemonade stands — and if you looked a little closer, you'd spot the painted rock displays, the homemade arcade games, and the surprisingly well-managed cash box. They were building something, and they didn't even know it.
Watching them figure out pricing, charm their customers, and count their earnings at the end of the day — I thought: every kid deserves this.
So in 2022, I turned that idea into something real. I hosted the first Kids' Entrepreneur Market in Bend, OR — a dedicated space where young entrepreneurs could set up shop, make real sales, and learn from one another. It was scrappy, joyful, and everything I hoped it would be.
By 2024, we had grown to over 90 young entrepreneurs at a single market — proof that this community was hungry for exactly this kind of experience.
Then, in 2025, something clicked. An epiphany that changed everything. I realized KEM had an opportunity to model something bigger than entrepreneurship alone — and shifted the market to become an eco-friendly marketplace. Because teaching kids to build a business and teaching them to care for the world they're building it in? Those things belong together.
Now, I'm thrilled to be expanding into Redmond and Sisters, Oregon in 2026, bringing even more kids the chance to discover what they're capable of — with the planet in mind every step of the way.
570+
youth entrepreneur participants
SCHOLARSHIPS
granted to eco-friendly businesses
FIRST MARKET
2022
KEM launches in Bend, OR with a small but mighty crew.
90+ ENTREPRENEURS
2024
A landmark market proves just how much this community has grown.
ECO SHIFT
2025
KEM becomes an
eco-friendly marketplace.
2026
EXPANDING
Redmond and Sisters, Oregon join the KEM family.
I run KEM as a one-woman team, and none of it would be possible without an incredible community behind it. To every supporter, sponsor, and volunteer who has shown up for these kids — thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
Mary To-Saturnio, Founder