Kid’s lemonade stands crop up to give to the zoo

A tide of giving is rising in Superior, fueled by children who love the zoo.

Lemonade stands have popped up around town, offering cool drinks and sweet treats, with every penny going to the Lake Superior Zoo, which was damaged during last weeks flooding.

On the corner of North 22nd Street and Clough Avenue, 8-year-olds Kendall Callery and Lily Walrath offered fresh baked cookies for a quarter apiece and glasses of lemonade for 50 cents each Thursday morning.

“We felt really bad for the zoo,” Kendall said. “Not only did they get things wrecked and animals died, they had to send their animals away until everything gets fixed.”

Neighbors, passers-by, even work trucks stopped to sample the treats. Sheila DuBois came all the way from Billings Park to donate to the cause.

“We do have a family zoo pass and we love the zoo,” she said.

The zoo is important to both the girls, as well.

“I like the petting zoo because you can pet the animals,” said Lily, whose family has a zoo membership. “And my sister is one year old. She can barely talk and she loves the goats.”

The seals are Kendall’s favorite. She enjoys watching them swim right up to the underwater viewing window.

Lily and Kendall wrote a letter to send with the money they raise.

“We’re sorry for what happened at the zoo,” it said. In the letter, the 8-year-olds asked that half the money go to fix up the barnyard and the rest go toward purchasing new animals.

Kendall’s mother gave her the idea to donate to the zoo after seeing news reports of similar stands.

“Since we were going to do a lemonade stand I called Lily and I said maybe we should do this about the zoo,” Kendall said. “And we decided we’re going to do it.”

Lily’s mother, Katie Walrath, backed their plan.

“I thought it was a wonderful idea being that we were so sad about the zoo animals and all the other tragedies in the area,” she said. “I thought it was a great idea; give back to the community.”

Kendall stayed up until 11 p.m. Wednesday baking cookies — peanut butter, chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and snickerdoodle.

“I baked 96,” she said, although her mother and Lily’s younger sister, Ava, each ate a few. The lemonade was a hit with neighbors Ian Johnson and Chase Archambeau. The 11-year-old boys stopped by the stand four times during the morning.

“Can’t resist,” said Chase, running over. “So good.” The boys even offered to make signs to promote the stand.

“It’s helping the zoo,” Chase said.

By the time they packed the last cup away, the girls had collected $57 for the Lake Superior Zoo.

A few blocks away, 7-year-old Isak Coyle and his sister Cierra, 5, sat at their lemonade stand, which also offered fruit punch flavored Kool-Aid, for the second day in a row. Wednesday, they raised more than $29 for the zoo. Giving was picking up Thursday. In one five-minute stretch, they collected $30 in donations from two passers-by.

The siblings enjoy setting up lemonade stands over the summer, said their mother Michelle. Their father, Mike, encouraged them to give all their proceeds from the stand to the zoo.

Pat Smedberg of Superior dropped by the Coyle stand to drop off a donation, but he passed on the lemonade. Smedberg was one of hundreds of volunteers who helped with zoo clean-up last week.

“I take the family there, we enjoy going there,” he said. “It was a terrible thing to see.”

Smedberg has noticed a number of lemonade stands in the area collecting money for the zoo.

“Everyone wants to help out and their helping out in so many ways,” Michelle Coyle said. “It’s really cool to see.”

Tags: news, family, money, animals