Shorewood Kids Get a Glance at Different Exciting Career Options

Editor's Note: As part of the Shorewood BID's "Kids Take Charge" event, 12-year-old Janneke Bannink of Shorewood shadowed Shorewood Patch Editor Adam McCoy, took photos, conducted interviews and wrote the story below.

Despite the rain, children in Shorewood camped out at local stores and shops on Saturday to shadow business owners and employees as they went about their daily routine.

Michael Sibila, 12, and Willa Ricketts, 10, were among several area children that helped out at local businesses as part of the Shorewood Business Improvement District’s “Kids Take Charge” event.

There were a lot of businesses and stores for participating children to choose from including , and among others.

Michael and Willa chose to help out at . They made sweets and popcorn and helped out at the cash register and front counter taking customer orders.

When asked why they chose the job, they both said they like cooking. Michael said he likes making desserts because, “I just like good tasting things … and desserts taste good.”

Willa said she wanted to own a restaurant in the future.

“… I love cooking and serving other people,” she said.

Three other participants in this exciting event were Atwater and Lake Bluff Elementary School students Cora Heinen, Gretchen Froelich and Calista Luger.

They wanted to pick different stores, but with no spots available, they were assigned to .

Even though it wasn’t their first choice, they were excited about it because it was a job that took a lot of training and wasn’t a typical profession.

Their catch phrase for the chiropractic shop was, “If you mess up, you could break somebody’s bones.”

As part of their time at the storefront, they scanned their feet to see if they had flat arches.

Monica Maroney, owner of the shop, said if you have flat feet, you might have spinal misalignment.

When the group of children was asked if they would choose this job as a profession Gretchen replied, “You make a lot of people feel better, then people like you.”

These were just two of the many interesting jobs children could choose.