Students staged their Feb 12 sale almost entirely on their own. Members of the Collins Young Entrepreneurs Kids group planned every stage of the garage sale, from gathering toys to setup to soliciting area sponsors.

"We learned how to communicate and work as a team," says 11-year-old Anshul Samar, a Collins fifth grader and the vice president of marketing. "Now we know how to run a company. Kids can do this."

Anshul's father, Vipin Samar, helped start the group in November 2003. Samar is CEO of Extensio Software in Cupertino and wanted to share his knowledge with Anshul and his peers. The club is staffed by seven vice presidents, covering areas from sales to advertising to engineering. Fifteen students in grades four through six make up the club in its entirety.

The club is one of a selection of extracurricular activities—such as gardening, knitting and various languages—available to Collins students whose parents belong to the PTA

"This is our second year," Collins principal Karen Barrett said. "Most of the club work takes place in the morning before school, but all of these students had participating roles in the sale."

For instance, Anshul's main responsibility as vice president of marketing was to drum up interest among his fellow students in putting their old toys up for sale—and getting excited about the possibility of buying new ones. Posters for the garage sale, spearheaded by vice president of ads/banners Zachary Yuen, pledged that there would be "no toy left behind."

"We had lots of toys—video games, board games, lots of books and stuffed animals," Anshul says. "We were also auctioning off items from sponsors. There was a doll house for the girls."

Other students, led by vice president of business development Sumeet Vadodkar, approached businesses in the community to provide refreshments and received interest from the community as well. Not only did Barrett stop by to check up on her students, but Cupertino mayor Patrick Kwok also surveyed the sale's offerings for about a half-hour. "Way more people came than we thought," Anshul says. Enough buyers picked up used toys to push the sale total to $1,470.

A portion of the money will be returned to the students who donated their toys, and the rest will go back to the club, the school or be donated for tsunami relief.

"We might buy a school mascot," Anshul says.

The club started with about seven students, but doubled in size between its first and second years. Like any good business, the club hopes to keep expanding, according to Anshul. "Now that everyone knows about the garage sale, maybe we'll be able to get this year's fourth graders," he says.