Dalton girl sells cotton candy with eye on the sky
Melody Steiner, left, is joined by sister Rachel and mother Maria as they sell cotton candy spun on site at a recent event. Melody is selling cotton candy to raise enough money to eventually earn her pilot’s license.
When Melody Steiner saw a video of Samaritan’s Purse giving aid to children in need, she was hooked — not in the giving part directly, but in getting the aid where it needed to be.
Just 7 at the time, Steiner immediately fell in love with the idea of becoming a pilot and ferrying goods to people who need them. Four years later she’s still hooked, and through a bit of entrepreneurial spirit and a lot of help from her family, her pursuit of pilot-hood is well underway.
“I was watching videos online, and I saw this organization called Samaritan’s Purse,” Steiner said. “I saw how kids who didn’t have very many things were able to get things.”
Couple that with a fascination with airplanes and a career aspiration was born. Now the young Dalton resident was left with the question: How can I pull that off?
Becoming a commercial pilot can cost upward of $30,000, according to www.pilotinstitute.com. The route to licensure includes written and practical exams, medical exams, and lots and lots of flight time.
Time is on Steiner’s side. Just 11 years old, she can’t even get a pilot’s license until she’s 16.
Maria Steiner didn’t want to dash her daughter’s dreams. She also wanted to remain realistic, and when she saw the cost, she tried to pull in the reins a bit on Melody.
“We told her she wasn’t allowed to do it,” Maria Steiner said. “It’s too expensive of a hobby to do. I told her she could find something else. That’s kind of how I left it. She kept being persistent about it.”
Persistence won, and when a craving during a family trip couldn’t be assuaged, an idea was born. Traveling across a few different states, Melody Steiner had a hankering for some cotton candy but could never find any.
The light bulb then appeared above her head: sell cotton candy, raise money, become a pilot. Easier said than done, of course, but Melody Steiner wasn’t going to be denied.
“One thing led to another, and she kept asking if she could start her own business,” Maria Steiner said. “She was doing some research on that, and one thing led to another, and my mom and dad said, ‘Oh, let them just try it.’ They started selling out on (state Route) 57 and Fulton Road, and we made up some bags and started selling it.”
They soon began doing Wayne County Lemonade Days, which encourages the type of entrepreneurship Melody Steiner was interested in.
Bauman’s Orchard in Rittman was among the first to aid the Steiners’ cause, allowing Melody to sell lemonade and cotton candy at its Strawberry Festival. The business grew from there.
So much, in fact, the Steiners got a business license and began working different corners, selling primarily cotton candy wherever they could find a place.
“We started selling out more at my parents,” Maria Steiner said. “We started getting asked to go different places. I told her we were learning about business.”
The name of the business is the Sunbow 57 Girls. Sunbow is a play on rainbow, which applies to the variety of colors and flavors the cotton candy comes in. The 57 Girls is a name they picked up while selling at their roadside spot.
They spin their own cotton candy and sell bags for $4 and containers, including organic cotton candy, for $3. Melody Steiner knows it will take a lot of sales to reach her goal.
“We learn that in business it doesn’t come easy. You learn as you go,” Maria Steiner said. “We’ll see how far we can go.”
Melody Steiner once went as far as California in a plane. She enjoyed every second of the ride and can’t wait to be in the pilot’s seat.
“I just liked how you could see the land below,” she said. “And it was fun just to be flying and in the sky.”