Thursday, October 13, 2011

Lemonade Stand to go ahead...rain, hail or shine...literally!

You may have seen my last post where I explained why we are doing a Lemonade Stand, raising money for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.  If not, you can read it here

Well Polly's lemonade stand goes ahead this Saturday, and what bad timing it is!!  Firstly it is predicted to be thundery rain ALL DAY!!  Secondly we are having our house renovated, and they decided to excavate the front yard this week, just before all that torrential rain, and tomorrow (Friday) they are pouring concrete for the driveway.  So it is a bit of a mess, which is amplified by the rain!

However, we have juiced all the lemons (15 litres of lemon juice in the freezer), baked cupcakes and cookie wands, and will be cooking the popcorn and mixing up the lemonade on Saturday morning.  Polly has made bunting and other signs and all the kids can't wait to set up the lemonade stand.  The excitement could possibly be short lived if there are no people and we are standing out in the pouring rain.  But hey, we had fun doing it.

I will update you with photos and how much we were able to raise for the Cancer Foundation.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Lemonade Stand for Cancer ~ Child Friendly Project

This is not related to a child friendly restaurant review, but I had to share this with you.  Our eldest daughter who is 6, came to us and wanted to hold a lemonade stand.  We initially brushed the idea off.  But she was persistent and explained that she wanted to raise money for cancer.  In her words she said "Mum I want to give money to someone who can make really good medicines to get rid of cancer ".

It brought tears to my eyes!!  So of course, we are getting ready to hold a cliche lemonade stand out the front of our house to raise money for good cancer medicines - Saturday 15th October from about 10am.

My mother suffers from a brain tumour and has to have chemothereapy every month for the rest of her life.  She is an amazing woman, and although we don't talk about her illness a lot, our children are clearly aware of the effect it has had on her life and the family as a whole.  This was never more evident than when Polly came up with this idea.....

We wanted to support and encourage her initiative, so we called the Australian Cancer Research Foundation who have endorsed the lemonade stand as fundraising on their behalf, and from there the support has been amazing.  Murray Bros and the Brisbane Markets at Rocklea have provided 200 lemons free of charge so we can make the lemonade.  Sharnel Dollar Designs is lending a few bits and pieces for the stand set-up.  The neighbours are all pitching in with baking, and Polly has recruited all the neighbours' children to help out on the day.  Quest Newspapers did a half page colour feature pre-promoting the event, and 4BC Talkback Radio interviewed Polly on the Breakfast Show.    This snowball effect has all started from one little 6 year old's desire to raise money for "cancer medicine".

We have made signs and bunting, and plan to cook up a few tasty treats to add to the stall.  Juicing the lemons has been fun - we have ten litres in the freezer and 3 more cartons of lemons to squeeze, which has been a joint effort with the kids.  We did a test run of the lemonade recipe last night which was delish.  We found it on the Simply Recipes website.  I would recommend it for those hot summer days on the deck. 

All in all it has been a fun project for Polly to organise.  I will update you on how we go and how much we raise on the day.....

Here is the link to the online news article.  The hard copy had a great photo included, but this has all the info.  Please note that the paper says it will be held this weekend, but we had to postpone a week due to the storm forecast and all this rainy weather.  Fingers crossed the 15th is a beautiful Spring day!!  Might see you there.  http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/west/raising-funds-for-cancer-research/story-fn8m0u4y-1226157963351