When Lucy Goodman set up a lemonade stand last year, she had her eyes on the prize: Lego.
When she set up the stand again this year at the end of her family’s Orillia driveway, she had sharing on her mind.
On Saturday, the six-year-old decided there were people in town who needed the money more than she did, so she diverted all of the profits to the Sharing Place Food Bank.
“I heard they were not having enough food and they need a new freezer,” Goodman said.
She was right. The Sharing Place recently appealed for donations as its shelves were becoming bare. Money is the preferred donation, allowing the food bank to buy exactly what it needs, and Goodman answered the call, collecting $230 through the sale of lemonade, cookies and muffins.
She took her spot at the lemonade stand bright and early to catch the garage sale shoppers, and it worked. The hundreds of baked goods she made with her grandmother were sold out by 9:30 a.m. An hour later, the lemonade was gone, too.
“I was really proud of myself,” Goodman said.
So was her mother, Nicole Goodman.
“To be six years old and to not want the money to buy things – we’re so proud of her,” she said. “She has a really big heart.”
Now the young girl is issuing a challenge to others to step up and raise money for the Sharing Place, by selling lemonade or by simply dropping off a cheque at the food bank on West Street South.
“They should do it because the food bank is running out of money,” she said.
Generosity is both practised and preached in the Goodman household.
“What’s the most important thing in life to be?” Nicole Goodman asked her daughter.
Without even thinking about it, her daughter replied, “Kind.”
For information on how to support the Sharing Place, visit sharingplaceorillia.org or call 705-327-4273.
