Summer job
cancellations encourage
local students
to create their
own work
By Joy Saha
LONG GONE ARE the days of
stressing over impending homework
deadlines and grueling late-night study
sessions. During the summer months,
tweens and teens look forward to making
some extra cash and working.

But this year’s summer came with its
own challenges. As health and safety risks
related to the pandemic continued to
prevail, many local businesses cancelled
their job opportunities for the season.

For a select group of local students, the
current setbacks haven’t dampened their
entrepreneurial spirits. Instead, they’re
putting their creativity to work, launching
their own individual startups to earn a
few bucks and, for some, giving back to
the community.

Eleven-year old Orit Vainstein from
Bethesda kick-started her babysitting
business in early June with help from her
friends and family. The rising sixth grader
at North Bethesda Middle School is both
the founder and a member of Virtual
Kidsitters, an online kid sitting group
helping parents efficiently work from
home with minimal stress.

“Virtual kid sitting is to help parents
be able to work while the kids do fun
and educational activities,” Vainstein
says. “We know that parents during this
quarantine need to work, but their kids
always want attention.”
Virtual Kidsitters currently includes
nine babysitters, including Vainstein
12 Washington FAMILY AUGUST 2020
and her friends from school, Hebrew
school and camp. The group primarily
works with children in kindergarten
through second grade. The babysitters
also offer classes and storytime sessions
for younger children through their newly
launched Pre-K program.

Each kid sitting session features two
babysitters who engage in interactive
activities, including arts, crafts and games,
with up to five children. These sessions are
free and take place over Zoom, lasting for a
maximum of 45 minutes.

Although the group’s collective goal
is to help working parents amidst the
ongoing pandemic, Vainstein mentions
that Virtual Kidsitters has a larger
humanitarian goal—one that’s more
universal than personal. The babysitters
collect optional donations from their
customers and donate proceeds to the
Manna Food Bank, Anerican Red Cross
and Feeding America. As of mid-July,
Virtual Kidsitters has collected close to
$200 in donations.

“We’re actually not getting money for
ourselves…we want to help people and
our community in these rough times,”
Vainstein says.

In the same spirit as Vainstein, Noah
Medved and Mac Patterson, two 15-year-
old teens from Virginia, are also making
money this summer by detailing and
cleaning neighborhood cars. What started
as a simple act of generosity soon flourished
into a complete business idea for the pair.

“I started, at first, cleaning my mom’s
car…just because I was trying to be nice,”
Medved says. “I soon realized that I could
make money off of this.”
Medved and Patterson’s car detailing
business, which was launched in May, has
garnered more than 40 local customers.

The business’s services are advertised
on Facebook, which allows for quick and
efficient customer outreach.

Although their work is quite
rewarding—the pair make $85 to $95 per
car—Medved and Patterson acknowledge
that their jobs are both strenuous and
difficult. They both work approximately
six to eight hours per day and are
oftentimes overbooked due to their high
volumes of clients.

“We get pretty tired and we get triple
booked on cars,” says Patterson. “We put
our hard sweat into these cars.” The pair
are also saving their profits for college.

But despite all the challenges, both
Medved and Patterson agree that
managing their car detailing business is a
“learning experience.” Proper scheduling
and organization are key for running their
business smoothly and ensuring that
each of their customers receive the best
service possible.

Unlike Vainstein, Medved and
Patterson, 15-year-old Ryan Weiner from
Potomac is using his personal passion—
specifically, his passion for baseball—to