Students at Naples’ Lely High School can buy school apparel, such as T-shirts, hooded sweaters, sweatpants, book bags and flip-flops, as well as necessities, such as candy, notebooks, pencils and pens at their recently opened Lely Corner Store. It is an enrepreneurial experience to prepare students for life after graduation.

 Cashiers are paid $7 a shift, assistant managers are paid $9 a shift and the store manager gets $10 a week plus a percentage of the profits at the end of the month. Their experience will help them find real jobs after they graduate. The Naples chapter of SCORE helped the 10 students involved in the project to develop a business plan, marketing plan and the basics of the business’ structure. They even helped the students conduct a student body survey on what types of products should be sold in the store.

 The opening of the store was made possible by a grant from Project 10: Transition Education Network, which is Florida’s voluntary statewide project that supports the secondary transition of youth with disabilities. Lely’s Frances Crowley-Minella, grant writer and overseer for the project, enlisted SCORE Naples chairman Chick Heithaus and Susan Christiano, from Nation's Real Estate Services, to help without charge. Students, teachers, and volunteer consultants were involved in meetings to present and consider ideas for the store’s business plan, identity and logo, plus job descriptions and operating systems.