Troy students aid charity with lemonade stand
By Marianne Eisenbrandt Correspondent February 28, 2013 12:04PM
Updated: April 2, 2013 6:09AM
Turning lemons into lemonade benefited not only William B. Orenic Intermediate School special education students but also a children’s charity.
Patty Provance, special services teacher, said the project started when her fifth-grade students read a short story about a lemonade stand and someone remembered a story about a little girl who started a lemonade stand.
Provance did some research and found that Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004).
In 2000, 4-year-old Alex announced that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer. Since Alex held that first stand, the foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement.
After Provance shared Alex’s story with her students, they were so excited that they asked her to contact their principal and request his permission because they wanted to do this project.
“We are talking about 17 special education students that have all different kinds of learning disabilities wanting to help others,” Provance said.
During the nine days the students ran their lemonade stand in the cafeteria they collected $1,553.60 that will be sent to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
Peggy Granzow, teaching assistant, and Provance gave up their own lunch and planning time in order to supervise the students while they sold the lemonade.
Not only did the students earn money for childhood cancer they also learned some useful skills. From writing letters to area businesses requesting contributions to selling lemonade, every one of her students had a chance to participate in the project.
The students are also working on thank-you letters that will be sent to sponsors: Jose Nieto of Applebee’s, Nancy Morales of McDonalds, Karen Jensin of Chili’s and Ron Delcourt of Jewel.
Wanting to help children with cancer was the motivating factor for the students.
“When you help other people with cancer you make kids have bright smiling faces,” said Tatum Harrison.
Kyle Gersch said helping kid’s with cancer can be a great thing while Giselle Lomeli thought it would be fun to help people. “I wanted to see a nice smile and happy faces,” she said.
Also participating were Emily Eberhart, Morgan Gawlik, Johnny Lara, Jason Gomez, Meghan Check, Jasmine Rodriguez, Carter Kurzinski, Mayte Aguirre, Jackson Seyl, Sophia Trantina, Vincent Blankenship, Trevor Manthei, Bryan Travis and Hunter Ruth.
