Area children raised nearly $1,500 for childhood cancer research on Friday.
At the Trotter Business Convention, 13-year-old Jackie McGrath and her friends handed out lemonade and took donations as part of the national “Lemonade Days Weekend,” which was started by a foundation called “Alex”s Lemonade Stand.”
The organization was founded in 2000 by a 4-year-old girl named Alex Scott who had been diagnosed with cancer just before her first birthday. After four years of lemonade stands, Scott eventually succumbed to her battle with cancer, but the foundation has raised more than $30 million for cancer research.
McGrath gave half of her money to Alex”s Lemonade Stand and the other half to Camp Rising Sun, a camp for kids with cancer hosted by YMCA”s Camp Pratt.
“I think it”s a great project and I”m very impressed that girls this age would think to do this,” said Jennifer Brady, who was pleased to see some of the money going to a local cause.
“When it”s a red light, sometimes we go up to their car and give them lemonade,” said Evelyn Ray, who was stationed on the corner of Fifth Street and Second Avenue with three other girls.
The girls, who have run the lemonade stand alongside McGrath for the last three years, said they planned to keep doing it.
“Once I have a stroke, and I”m in the hospital, I”ll stop doing it,” Sara Neal said.
The girls said people had been generous.
“Some people don”t even take the lemonade,” Carrie Westmoreland said. “They just donate the money.”
On the other side of Main Street, Lasonia Brownlee and Katrina Savage managed a boisterous group of 4- and 5-year-olds who had their own stand at the First United Methodist Church.
“They”re are my biggest customers,” laughed Brownlee as she tried to wrangle the children while they snuck drinks from the lemonade cooler in between games of tag.
Some customers gave more than the $1 required for a cup. One woman handed the children $5 but left her lemonade for another customer. Others simply honked or waved as they drove by.
Still, after two and a half hours on the job, the lemonade stand”s Tupperware cash box only had $271 in it. It was a surprising contrast from McGrath”s stuffed pickle jar, considering the fact that the younger kids had a weapon the older girls didn”t: A secret recipe for their lemonade. Donna Smith, a cook at First United Methodist, worked with the ingredients parents brought her.
Smith said she used “fresh-squeezed lemons, sugar, a little bit of ginger ale, and just a touch of love.”
McGrath”s helpers included Margaret LeBrun, Anna LeBrun, Emma Davis, Hollis Phillips, Katherine Briner, Chatham Phillips, Ashley Brooks and Evie McIntyre.
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