| Frank J. Pizzo, a 12-year Business Education Teacher at Deerfield Beach High School, was selected to receive a Leavey Award for Free Enterprise Education. Mr. Pizzo received a grant of $7,500 and a trip to Philadelphia and Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge at the end of March to receive the award at a lavish awards banquet. |
| Mr. Pizzo's winning entry, The Button-up Mania Project, involved 32 junior and senior high school students enrolled in his Marketing Essentials course at an urban high school setting specializing in the area of marketing and finance education. The class is divided into teams which become business competitors. Each group develops a company name and designates work responsibilities to each of the group members. Each must write a business plan, design their product, manufacture, and develop a marketing plan. They learn that in a company, especially a small company, everyone wears many hats and that each must step-up everyday to ensure success. |
| The buttons are the pin back types of the type frequently distributed by political campaigns. For manufacturing, the students have access to a professional grade mechanical button making machine and two button sleeve cutters. |
| At the conclusion of the course, the students have experienced situations found in a real-life entrepreneurial environment. They have learned how to obtain customers by developing new target markets through a hands-on research campaign. They use this research to test market product ideas and retail price. |
| The students also learn how to obtain resources and purchase materials to manufacture their product, including the analysis of cost of goods sold and creating product life cycles. In the salesmanship portion of the project, students learn how to ask for the order and how to ask for help! Lastly, they learn how to grow their company by increasing sales, increasing market share and how to beat out the competition. |
| Upon completing the six week project, the students are better equipped to understand how the free enterprise system works and especially how to turn a profit. |
