High schoolers get pope-trepreneurial

The pope's warnings about unfettered capitalism didn't deter a bevy of young entrepreneurs – mostly Main Line high school students – who descended on the Radnor SEPTA station this morning in hopes of making a few dollars on assorted goodies and papal knickknacks.

Aidan Dunn, 14, and Aidan Carter, 15, of Radnor High School displayed a sign offering pilgrims "The Holy Trinity of Deals" – donuts for $1 each and coffee and water for $2 apiece.

They procured the breakfast treats by making their parents get up at 6 a.m. and take them to Dunkin' Donuts.  "They were not thrilled," said Aidan. He said the station wasn't as busy as they expected but that they needed to make $90 to break even and were expecting to make a decent profit.

He said the boys figured "a lot of people would be waiting in line and they'd like coffee and a donut to wake them up. All we're doing is using the opportunity of a lot of people" to make a few dollars.

At a table next to them, C.J. Giardinilli, 15, a Radnor High School sophomore, and his friend Kevin Doyle, a sophomore at Archbishop Carroll, had a similar idea, selling pope T-shirts for $10 and dividing a portion of the profits.

Their neighbors at the train station, 14-year-old Radnor High School freshman Jaime Getty and Sophia Udicious 14, of Rosemont, a freshman at Harritan High, were also raising money by selling pretzels, bottled water and baked brownies, but their goal was a cause: A mission to Peru for their Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Chuch.

One adult also joined the ad hoc bazaar – 25-year-old artist Emily Butera of Sweet Domino Designs in Gladwyne. She was touting her tote bags, including one that showed Pope Francis atop the art museum steps in Rocky pose, that had already been named "Best of Philly" in papal merchandising and gained her an interview earlier on "CBS Morning News."