If you like to have a sweet treat now and then and love to help great causes, a local family is about to open up a lemonade stand for one day to support Stollery Children’s Hospital.
Each year the Lessard/Blanchette/Wirove/Maisonneuve family hosts a lemonade stand in Falher to help raise funds for specific initiatives at the Stollery Children’s Hospital.
Kristen Blanchette says their family continues to organize the lemonade stand because the children all love to help other children.
“We are doing the lemonade stand again this year on Aug. 28,” says Blanchette, noting it’s their fifth year hosting.
“This year the money will be used to buy NICView cameras for various Stollery neonatal intensive care units across northern Alberta, allowing Stollery families to see their babies anytime, and from anywhere, through a safe and secure live webcam video feed.”
The lemonade stand will be located west of the Big Bee in Falher at 13 3rd Ave. SW in Falher from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Aug. 28.
Blanchette says she and her mother and sisters, along with their children, have decided to continue the tradition this year, hoping to help raise funds for the necessary resource.
“I like to do it to help give money to the Stollery for the kids who need it,” says 11-year-old Nate Wirove.
Blanchette says the lemonade stand involves all the children and the family has a rotating schedule for working the stand and a list of other jobs children can do. She adds as the children get older they take on new roles to help at the stand.
“I like to raise money to give to the kids in the hospital in Edmonton,” says Remy Blanchette, 7.
Simply Supper’s Lemonade Stand Day is a program that gives children the chance to run a business and to learn about customer service, all while raising money for the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation. According to the Stollery website, over 400 lemonade stands across the province are erected supporting the hospital. Although the event is planned and managed by Simply Supper and a volunteer committee, proceeds are all donated back to the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Blanchette says the hospital has been instrumental in her family’s life, with multiple family members having to use the hospital. She and her children Rosalynn and Remy, her mom Marion Lessard, sisters Taryn Wirove and Celty Maisonneuve, and their children Nash Maisonneuve, Maelle Maisonneuve, Nate Wirove and Ellie Maisonneuve were excited to raise funds for such an important hospital in our province.
“Many members in our family have had to use the Stollery in the past and we really want it to continue to be there when we or others need it in the future,” Blanchette says.
Rosalynn Blanchette, 10, agrees with her brother and cousin.
“It’s important to have the stand” because we help the doctors and the kids at the Stollery.”
For more information and history about the Lemonade Stand Day, please visit https://lemonadeyeg.ca/our-lemon-love-story/
Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter