A nonprofit in north Lexington is offering neighborhood teens the chance to earn money by making ceramics that are sold around Central Kentucky.
Naturally, everyone who works at Matchstick Goods must learn how to shape clay.
But the more important lessons have to do with responsibly holding a job — showing up on time, getting along with your boss — and selling their products to the public with confidence at stores and weekend markets. These are skills that will carry them into whatever they do next.
“We go to different events around Lexington and introduce Matchstick to customers who don’t know what Matchstick is,” said 16-year-old Juvalay Cornelio, a junior at Bryan Station High School.
As she spoke on a recent evening in the basement of Embrace Church on North Limestone, Juvalay neatly folded a small slab into the form of a coffee mug. Three of her young colleagues sat on stools alongside her, doing the same. They had an order from the VisitLex gift shop for 25 mugs and 25 ornaments decorated with horses.