One of our favorite 9-year-old supporters had a lemonade stand earlier this month. Ellie posted herself in front of her house in southern California sunshine and sold lemonade and cookies to help raise money for a the Playground Project in Ivanivka. We hadn’t even officially launched when Ellie had her little stand, but as Anika’s niece, she was in the know early and quickly jumped on board to support!
As cars pulled up to her stand and she poured them a glass of lemonade, she’d adorably and simply say that she was “raising money for Open Arms to build a playground for kids in Ukraine.” That was all it took. She said only 1 or 2 people actually paid her the 50 cents she was asking for a glass of lemonade. Granted, she’s in a perfect location for a lemonade stand with her house sitting in between 2 stop signs in her neighborhood, but to say she did well was an understatement. She ended up with a matching donor and raised a total of $1446!
In talking to Ellie after she kept saying how happy she was that she got to help build the park! (See her video below.) And she said how cool she thought it would be to see other kids help build it too. So we thought we’d share her sweet lemonade story and see if she might not inspire some other amazing kids to help the kids in Ivanivka. Whether it’s a lemonade stand, bake sale, car wash, coin jars, garage sale or something else you think of, we would love to see more kids helping kids. Ellie did the lemonade stand because it was what worked for her location and personality. What works for you might be totally different! And whether it raises $20 or $2000, every dollar helps. We made Ellie a very simple flyer for social media and stickers with the website to stick on her cups. If you are interested and would like to use any of these resources, please send us an email and we would be more than happy to get them to you!
We need to raise a lot of money for this venture & we love that Ellie kicked us off with such an a simple, cute and successful fundraiser! If you stopped by her stand or donated, thank you! And thanks to the rest of her family for helping get her all set up!
Here’s a little bit of Ellie sharing about her little fundraiser and her heart to help.