The corporation president beamed as she addressed the shareholders' meeting. Sales were strong. Spirits were high.
But this corporation president is 11-year-old Kristin Cullison, the shareholders are children of servicemen and women at Fort Meade and the corporation is selling T-shirts at $10 each to raise money to send care packages to servicemen and servicewomen in Haiti.
In one week, the students at Pershing Hills Elementary School have sold 450 shirts. They hope to sell 390 more in front of the post commissary and PX this weekend.
With the help of sixth-grade teacher Linnea Bull, their chief executive officer, the students formed a company called Little Soldiers Inc., to research the market and devise a business strategy.
The students hope to raise $3,400 to $3,500. That would allow them to send 100 to 120 care packages to Haiti.
"They get lessons in math, marketing, economics, charitable work," said Pat Stange, mother of sixth-grader Wes, as she showed a young saleswoman how to fold shirts so their design would show in a sales display.
"For any military kid," she said, "the likelihood that your parent's going to be gone is high."
Helping soldiers in Haiti can help boost the spirits of children whose parents also are stationed overseas, Ms. Bull said.
"It feels good to know that other people will be happy for you doing something, and it makes you happy at the same time," said Jacob Rogers, 11.
During the shareholders' meeting in the school cafeteria, the students viewed slides taken by Sgt. Chris Vincent, who spent three weeks in Haiti. They asked him and other soldiers who had been to Haiti what they should include in the packages.
Sgt. 1st. Class Clyde Ferguson said small shaving brushes would be useful for brushing away the dust that cakes everything in Haiti. Packets of Kool-Aid would be nice, too, he said, to cover up the chlorine taste left by water-purification tablets. But no M&M;'s, please.
"We had bags and bags of M&Ms;," he said. "We were getting sick of M&Ms.;"
Toiletries always are handy, he said, recalling how happy he was when a new washcloth appeared in a Red Cross care package after he had lost his. "It really does cheer you up," he said.
The students, who spent weeks studying Haiti as part of their class work, also asked how the soldiers were received by the Haitians, whether the Haitian police had caused them any trouble, and whether they had seen any voodoo ceremonies.
Several businessmen and women who lent their expertise to the project received T-shirts yesterday as tokens of the students' thanks.
John Moore, president of Moore Sports of Bethesda, arranged for the students to buy 840 shirts at cost. His artist helped them with the design on the front, a globe supported by four servicemen -- one each from the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines. A slogan stretching over the globe reads, "Together we can make a DIFFERENCE!!"
Cindy Crane, a public relations consultant with Caruso Designs of Columbia, gave the children marketing hints.
She taught them to look potential customers in the eye, to be well-organized and to play up their strong points. "You're kids," she told them. "You're cute. People love that. So work that angle."
In addition to helping others and providing fodder for geography lessons, the project will also count toward the students' community service requirement.
"You've taken a requirement . . . and turned it into a worthwhile project," Principal Ralph McCann Jr. told the students yesterday.
"Congratulations!"