A few years ago, four kids from Indian Hill, Ohio, teamed up to open a lemonade stand in their neighborhood.
The Zerbe family’s two sons and the Weidner family’s two daughters set up their stand and finished the day $148 richer than they started. Instead of keeping the money, the kids decided to donate it instead.
Moms Amanda Zerbe and Hillary Weidner thought this was the perfect moment to teach their children how to be charitable with their earnings, and they didn’t have to think very hard when it came to selecting an organization.
When Hillary’s daughter Beatrice was just 6 months old, she needed a kidney transplant. Hillary donated one of her own kidneys to her little girl, and the doctors, nurses, and staff at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center helped them get well again. Beatrice is now a healthy, happy first-grader!
After the two families delivered their first check for $148 to the hospital, the moms shared what they’d done on social media.
Suddenly, friends, family members, and total strangers were opening their wallets and donating, too. Before they knew it, their small donation ballooned to $205,000!
Even as the novel coronavirus pandemic led to shutdowns and social distancing in 2020, the kids’ now-annual lemonade stand and online fundraiser managed to haul in another $10,000!
In 2021, the kids set a goal to raise $20,000 for Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, but they didn’t make the mark. Instead, they blew right past it and pulled in another $77,000! That’s over $300,000 total in just three years!
“It’s crazy,” Hillary said. “I mean, it’s just, there’s no amount of money that we can ever raise to acquaint what we have received from the hospital. So, even if we could donate 45 million, it wouldn’t even touch how much that we feel indebted to them.”
Generosity breeds generosity, and hard work will get you far in life. This is such a wonderful message for kids everywhere!
Share this story to thank these families for giving generously to help children in need.
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