Summer Lemonade Stand with Fun, Friends, Free Time and Country Time!

Few things are as fun as a lemonade stand – either putting one on yourself, or coming across one in your daily travels.

We ALWAYS stop at them and support our young entrepreneurs in the neighborhood, and we’ve had some darn good lemonade, too.

So we jumped at the chance when the folks at Country Time asked us to host a lemonade stand in our neighborhood as part of the “Great American Lemonade Stand-tacular” while raising money to support a very worthy cause — Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.  This group raises money for childhood cancer research.

Say no more, we were IN, so my son and friends set to work assembling the parts and pieces of their stand.

Adele began with the all-important sign. We kept it simple with yellow construction paper stapled onto a cardboard backing and a Sharpie (along with her mad art skills!), but you could certainly paint the sign or use whatever media you like.

They decided to sell some snacks along with the lemonade, to raise more money. If you buy a snack, you certainly need a cup of lemonade to wash it down, right? (And stay tuned in a future post for the recipe for the “Poopmallows.” Trust, me, you will want it!)

The kids set their stand up on a simple folding table, grabbed a few chairs from the backyard, and voila!

We chose a busy corner in our neighborhood, actually a “T” intersection where those driving by couldn’t miss our stand.

It helps if you have at least one member of your team who doesn’t mind going a little crazy to attract attention! Luckily, we had a team with big personalities.

Don’t be afraid to offer curbside service, if you can. Our team found it very convincing to lots of customers!

With just a pitcher of water, some ice cubes and a spoon, we stirred up an afternoon of fun for the entire neighborhood.

We kept it easy by using Country Time dried powder (natch!) for our drinks.  Country Time is available in four refreshing, down-home flavors including classic Lemonade, Pink Lemonade, Strawberry Lemonade and Half & Half (half iced tea, half lemonade).

We had kids coming home from a day at camp…

…and construction workers stopping by on their way after work.

We also decided to give something away — in this case, lemons from our backyard tree! We had lots of takers for the free lemons.

Of course, you have to take a break to sample the wares…

…and have a few laughs along the way.

Why not do your own stand, today? Summer…fun…friends…free time…and it’s for a good cause. If you would like an assist, Country Time Lemonade “Great American Lemonade Stand-tacular” online offers a free downloadable “Stand Plan” – a creative and user-friendly guide that gives parents all the information they need to help their kids build the best stand, while teaching them a little bit about business basics.

And while you’re doing your stand, please post a photo of your stand to the Country Time Facebook page. County Time will donate $5 (up to $50,000) to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to help fight childhood cancer for every family lemonade stand photo uploaded to the Great American Stand-tacular’s Facebook page this summer.

Country Time’s Great American Stand-tacular program helped the kids learn valuable lessons of entrepreneurship, and encouraged them to give back to others in need. These are values I support and like to model.

Our little stand raised $102 in an afternoon! The kids decided to split it 4 ways — so each of the principals got $25.50, and we sent $25.50 to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. (Hint: we got more money by suggesting that people donate their change to our “tip bucket” for Alex’s.)

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

We did it. You can, too! Get out the Sharpie and the cardboard. There’s no time like the present to make your own lemonade stand, and your own memories!

Disclosure: Country Time compensated me for my time preparing this post, and provided the lemonade and decorations for the stand. This post is entirely my opinions and words. 

Tagged as: Alex's Lemonade Foundation, Country Time lemonade, lemonade, lemonade stand