Getting with the business

Lolita Harper

Welcome to Hulaville, Costa Mesa. Population: about 20. City motto:

Have fun and make some money.

Hulaville is a little society that exists in the confines of Girls

Inc. in Costa Mesa. It is part of the summer camp program “Youth

Empowerment and Self-Sufficiency,” which is designed to teach the

girls how to manage their own businesses.

Hulaville is the proud home of a nail salon, a jewelry/snow cone

store, candy store, a tattoo parlor and a games shop, program

counselor Sandra Asencia said. The elementary age girls, in groups of

three, have learned how to open bank accounts, pay for a business

license, shop for retail space, sign a lease, buy their wares and

price them to make a profit, she said.

“They know they can’t sell just anything,” Asencia said. “They

need to detail it for their license and lease agreements and stick to

their plan.”

Brittany Cook, the proud “co-owner” of BVC’s Jewelry and Saved

Ice, said their business plan is golden.

“It’s hot in the summer, so we are going to sell snow cones,” she

said.

And while the girls are cooling down on snow cones, they might

find some “ice” -- slang for diamonds -- for their wrists. OK, well

maybe not diamonds, but some flashy beads, perhaps, the girls said.

Jumping on the summer-is-hot bandwagon are Miranda Gomez and her

business partners. They have created a Jr. Coldstone’s ice cream

shop.

“People are really going to like it,” Miranda said. “It’s going to

be really good.”

The girls have created their own Hulaville currency in $1, $2 and

$5 increments and will distribute it to the rest of the 75 girls

signed up for the Girls Inc. summer program. The entrepreneurs will

take their wares to the courtyard of the campus and peddle their

goods. Each day, they are required to log all their expenses and

revenues. The goal, obviously, is to make more Hulaville dough than

you spend.

Girls Inc. Executive Director Lucy Santana said she is so proud of

all the girls, in Hulaville and beyond. They have really poured their

energy into the summer programs, from starting their own mini-city

and creating water fountains to taking self-defense classes and

basking in the sun -- all without boys.

“We just like to create an environment that is not intimidating,

where the girls can be open and be themselves without trying to

impress anyone,” Santana said.

* SUMMER LEARNING is a weekly feature in which the Daily Pilot

visits a summer camp within the Newport-Mesa area and writes about

it.