Eighth grader Valerie Ferrell, proprietor of Wild West Snow Cones LLC, is one of Laramie’s youngest licensed business owners. At her pop-up snow cone stand, she chats easily with customers while skillfully combining sweet syrups and crushed ice.
Most of her customers probably wouldn’t guess that not too long ago, this articulate young entrepreneur was a quiet kid prone to retreating “like a turtle.”
In sixth grade, after several years of homeschooling, Ferrell entered Jeff Torbert’s class at Rock River School. “I just hid in my hoodie and I didn’t want to talk to people,” she recalls. “I was very quiet. Then, Jeff made me not quiet anymore!”
In addition to teaching and coaching at Rock River School, Torbert is an Albany County 4-H leader. He recognized Ferrell’s potential and thought 4-H could help build her self-confidence. In spring 2023, he suggested that Ferrell try raising pigs for 4-H. At the time, he and his wife, Sarah, had some extra barn space available for 4-H’ers who didn’t have the space to house livestock at home.
Ferrell was intrigued and soon, her parents found themselves seated at the dinner table while their daughter explained that she’d like to join 4-H and show pigs. Seeing her excitement, they agreed.
More than just a pig project
“Our goal in 4-H is to provide experiences for people to gain life skills,” says Sarah Torbert, who serves as UW Extension’s state 4-H volunteer development specialist. “It’s more than just showing pigs. This was a great way to for Val to get out of her shell a little bit and use the pig project as that life skill-building experience. She has gone from a very shy kid to a kid who is much more sure of herself.”
In all project areas, from livestock to crafting, the 4-H program connects young people with caring adults who provide mentorship and support. At first, Ferrell concentrated solely on her pig project, but she has since added photography, woodworking, and showing poultry to the mix.
‘’It’s night and day, her doing 4-H,” her mother, Breah Ferrell, says. “The more she’s done 4-H, the more she’s blossomed. She’s still shy, but she’s willing to go to chicken practice, to talk and walk the pig, and be involved.”
Gaining confidence
While she’s always been interested in chickens and pigs, Ferrell admits that part of the reason she chose to start with showing pigs is that she wouldn’t have to do a lot of talking. Instead, she’d be able to focus on guiding her pig around the ring. Still, it was intimidating to think about the judges watching her the whole time.
To her surprise, Ferrell won the very first pig show she entered, a jackpot event in Walden, Colorado. She has since realized that “People are going to watch me my entire life. So I might as well just start with 4-H and let people watch me with that…My anxiety says, ‘You don’t know what to do,’ but I do know what to do.”
While Peppa, Ferrell’s first pig, didn’t meet the weight required for county fair, that initial project was a turning point.
“Val really embraced what this could do for her,” says Sarah Torbert. “She took the small seed we gave her and has grown lots of metaphorical plants. It was a transformation in such a short time.”
Ferrell advises other potential 4-H’ers to start with an easier project, then “if you want to do the hard things, go ahead. It’s fun. Challenge yourself. That’s what I did.”
Selling snow cones
In March 2024, Ferrell volunteered at the Albany County 4-H carnival, an annual fundraising event that helps promote the 4-H program and connect 4-H’ers with their community.
Along with several other members of her 4-H club, Ferrell helped run the snow cone booth. As they crushed ice, poured syrup, and passed the finished cones to throngs of eager customers, she had an idea. What if she started her own snow cone business, independent of the carnival? The cones were fun and simple to make; the setup was easy to pack and transport. Plus, at large events like the carnival, she’d have no shortage of customers.
Ferrell had dreamed of opening her own business for a while. Both of her parents are entrepreneurs and, ultimately, she plans to follow in her father’s footsteps and open an auto mechanic shop. She didn’t want to wait until after high school to launch her first business, but as a teenage entrepreneur, she wasn’t sure where to begin.
“I was really nervous to start a business and I didn’t know what to start at my age,” she says. “And then the snow cones came to my mind.”
Launching a business
After the 4-H carnival, Ferrell pitched the idea to her parents. Soon, she’d enlisted her mother and aunt to help navigate the process of obtaining a food license and assembling startup equipment. Just a couple months after the carnival, Ferrell launched her business, Wild West Snow Cones LLC.
She quickly discovered that car shows were a great venue for snow cone sales—a win-win since she also loves cars. Over the course of the summer, Ferrell traveled to multiple shows in Colorado, making connections and landing new gigs as she went.
Along the way, she’s befriended a DJ who also frequents car shows, fellow attendees who share her passion for cars, and even a race car driver. Meeting the race car driver “was a conversation that got sparked because she came over, got a snow cone, and started talking to Valerie and asking questions,” her mother comments. “But before this and 4-H, she [Valerie] would never have gone and spoken to any of these people. She would clam up.”
Not anymore, though. Now, Ferrell enjoys the interactions. “I think the most fun part of the business is bringing friends and then meeting people with those friends because then we have a bigger conversation,” she says.
Future plans
While it’s been profitable so far, Ferrell doesn’t plan on staying in the snow cone business indefinitely. For her, it’s a way to gain business experience and jumpstart her career as an entrepreneur.
“I’m going to do building in the future and photography in the future. Maybe crafting. But I want to do snow cones at my age right now,” she explains. “I think it helps me know what I’m doing in life and it helps me talk to more people, especially with my anxiety.”
Unsurprisingly, Ferrell is already planning for the future, both short term and long term. Once she turns 14, she plans to start working and continuing to save money—in addition to juggling schoolwork, 4-H, sports, and her snow cone business. In the summer, she’ll continue to attend car shows; in the winter, she plans to boost school fundraising efforts by setting up her snow cone stand at sporting events. “I like being busy—it keeps me on my feet,” she says.
After high school, Ferrell plans to attend welding school, then complete a certification program at WyoTech or another technical institute so that she can pursue her dream of opening an automotive business. She may even raise a few more pigs along the way.
Whether it’s choosing a 4-H project or launching a business, Ferrell offers her peers the following advice: “Don’t do what people recommend you do. Do what you want to do. Follow your passion.”
