From lemons come lessons about giving back

When the lemonade stand that pops up for an afternoon every August at the corner of Falls Road and Shasta Avenue in Grafton started in 2021, it raised $267.

Last year, the Lemonade for a Cause stand run by 12-year-old Kennedy Siewert and 15-year-old Addison Town netted $4,500, bringing the amount of money the girls have raised for two community causes — Family Sharing and the Grafton K-9 Foundation, which supports the police department’s dog — to $10,803 over four years.

This year’s lemonade sale, which will be held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, at the stand’s usual location at Falls Road and Shasta Avenue, will be special, if not bittersweet. The girls have set a fundraising goal of $5,000, an amount that would bring their five-year total to more than $15,000. 

Then they are done. Friday will be the last Lemonade for a Cause fundraiser for Kennedy, who attends John Long Middle School, and Addison, who will be a sophomore at Grafton High School.

“It’s very sad,” Addison said. 

Kennedy said, “We just think it’s time for us to find other things to do in the community. It’s sad, but we’re proud of our work because we believe in giving back to the community.”

The amount of money the two girls have raised running a lemonade stand is, of course, remarkable, but perhaps more important are the lessons they’ve learned and the example they have set, said BJ Cook, the woman who was the inspiration for the lemonade stand and to this day is the mentor behind Addison and Kennedy’s success.

“It’s crazy how much money we’ve raised over four years. We keep breaking records every year,” Cook said. “But what’s important for me as the adult was to teach the kids the importance of giving back to their community. That was the goal.”

In turn, Addison and Kennedy have passed that lesson along by example, she said.

“We’ve seen a lot more kids having lemonade stands and donating the money to community causes,” Cook said. 

In 2021, Cook lived next to Kennedy’s family and wanted to engage the then-8-year-old in a fun, meaningful summer project.

“I wanted to do something with her. I used to volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, so I’m a kid person,” Cook said. “At the time, there was a lot of construction in our neighborhood, so I thought, ‘Let’s do a lemonade stand for all the construction workers.’ Then I thought, ‘Why don’t we make it a fundraiser.’”

It was just Cook and Kennedy the first year, and all the money raised was donated to Family Sharing. Then Cook challenged Kennedy to find a second organization to help, and after Cook suggested some options, Kennedy chose the Grafton K-9 Foundation.

Addison, a friend of Kennedy, joined the team the second year and has been involved since in a fundraising effort that inspires giving rather than sells a product.

There is no charge for the lemonade provided by the girls, nor the goodies at their stand. Instead, they ask for donations to their causes, and customers willingly oblige.

Another secret to their success is the fact Cook, Kennedy and Addison have cultivated over the years loyal lemonade stand sponsors drawn to the idea of supporting two girls in their mission to give back to the community. 

“Our sponsors are really bummed that this is the last year,” Cook said. 

As the fundraiser has evolved, she said, there have been frustrations and rewards.

“Every now and again I get a little frustrated and think, ‘Is this really clicking for the girls?’” Cook said. “Kennedy and I were working on lining up sponsors and she was clicking away on her phone. I looked and saw she had done a complete presentation for her school on the lemonade stand and I thought, ‘Yeah, this is clicking.’”

Beyond the financial contributions Lemonade for a Cause has made to the agencies it supports, it has reinforced an ethic of community service that benefits all organizations, Julie Hoover, executive director of Family Sharing, which operates a food pantry and resale shop in Grafton, said. 

“For them (Kennedy and Addison) to learn the value of giving to others and supporting their community is wonderful. It’s really what community is about,” Hoover said. “And it’s been fun to see them grow. They were young when they started this. Now they’re young women. They are our future leaders.”

A lot of the credit for that goes to Cook, she said. 

“BJ has been such an amazing mentor,” Hoover said. “For a neighbor to step up and help children give back to the community is great.”

There will be a few additions to this year’s Lemonade for a Cause event, including Kylie Conrad, a friend of Addison and Kennedy who has joined the team and, learning early on that connections matter, has secured a donation from her father’s employer, the Milwaukee Bucks.

The girls were also hard at work earlier this week baking as many as eight dozen cookies to give away at the stand. In the past, treats have been donated, but this year the girls wanted to make them, Cook said. 

The hope, she said, is that other children step up to take over Lemonade for Cause as Kennedy and Addison find a new community project to pour their time and effort into. 

“The community doesn’t want this to end and our sponsors don’t want this to end, but we’ve done this for five years. It’s time to hand it off and let someone else run it,” Cook said. 

Kennedy agrees, but said it will be hard to walk away from the lemonade stand.

“I’m going to miss giving back to the community with the stand and having a good time with Addison and BJ,” she said. 

Addison said it will be difficult for her too, but she knows the future will bring new projects.

“We’re trying to come up with a new way to give back to the community,” she said. “I know we’ll find something.”