Sunday, September 14, 2008

Lemon-Aid Stand Today = Huge Failure =(


I spent the whole morning loading the truck with all the necessary supplies: tablecloth, chairs ice chest, cups, ice, lemons, wet wipes, paper towels, hand sanitizer, umbrella, umbrella stand, huge glass lemonade container, camera, sunglasses, jar for donations, sharpie, & tape. I made about 5 gallons (I was ambitious) of Country Time with fresh lemons for aesthetics. I made the big Lemon-AID sign. I sliced a dozen lemons to put on the side of the cups. I was well-prepared. Loaded up my 3 helpers, and down to First Street we went. We didn't do the stand at our house because we are probably one of the least travelled roads in our town. So we went to our downtown green area near Main Street to set-up (oh yes, I did), BUT found out that there was a little fair going on put on the Old Firehouse. Unfortunately we could not set-up because there were concession stands there that we would be competing with. So we had to go with Plan B - which was driving all over town looking for another prime location. Or any location that would get a decent amount of traffic, AND have a place cars could safely pull over. And we struck out. I wasn't willing to put for the set-up effort and spend a couple hours sitting there for just a few patrons. So we came home. I told the kids I would take them to the little carnival air that we saw - but by the time we got back there it was being torn down. I didn't have the heart to go back and get the lemonade stuff at this point.






The point of the Lemon-Aid stand was to raise money for clean water in African villages. We have been talking with the kids a lot about this, and they were ready to take some action. I thought this was a tangible thing THEY could do. I'm sure I was more disappointed than they were in the failure of the day. However Genevieve did say she was 'sad about not raising money for the people without water, especially the kids, because they weren't ready to die.' That was touching. She really is getting it in her little 6 year old mind.

1 comment:

Christiaan said...

Oh my gosh, that is so sad. I am so sorry that this venture didn't pan out like your giraffe!