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Girl, 8, sells summer drink to buy school supplies for needy
An entrepreneurial Germantown girl, her sisters and cousins took to the sidewalk to raise money for their peers who need help buying school supplies.
The aspiring chef, London Correia, 8, got the idea for the lemonade stand while watching a show on the Food Network highlighting summertime treats. She set a goal of $200 and recruited her four sisters and two cousins to run the stand in front of their grandmother's house on Welbeck Way in Montgomery Village.
"I just wanted to help people who don't have supplies for school," London said.
The girls poured lemonade from a large, orange cooler into plastic cups in four sizes: a sample cup for 25 cents; a small for 50 cents; a medium for 75 cents and a large for $1. The girls also sold packaged bags of cookies for 50 cents and bottled water for $1. By Thursday, the girls had made $128 before bad weather prompted them to close the lemonade stand.
London's mother, Rasheeda Nolan said her daughters have always had a giving spirit.
"They always do things like this that show off their giving spirit," said Nolan, president of the PTA at Clopper Mill Elementary School, where London will be in third grade when school starts Monday.
On the first day of business, Aug. 19, London and her sisters Keiswana Williams, 15, Shyonna Williams, 13, Lananda Correia, 10, and Leondra Correia, 11, made $65, with help from cousins Nevaeh Geater, 7 and Kendall Jackson, 7, Nolan said.
After falling short of the $200 goal, Bertha Bright, London's grandmother, said London "wanted to come back out to make more money" the next day.
Bright said the lemonade stand is not the first time London has encouraged her family to start a fund raiser. Following the death of London's godmother's brother, Gary Twyman, London gathered her family to sell lemonade, water, cookies and cakes to help pay for the funeral. They raised $300, Bright said.
Before it started to rain Thursday, Kristen McRae walked to where the girls were selling lemonade with her daughter Josephine, 1. She bought a large lemonade and donated $3 to their cause.
"It was a very mature gesture," she said of the lemonade stand. "The money wasn't for the lemonade, it's because what they are raising the money for."
Keiswana said she is proud of her little sister's efforts. Keiswana, who will be a sophomore at Northwest High, said "it feels good" to help her sister "because they're doing something positive."
"I think they're doing a great job," Keiswana said. "Not many little kids think of this."
