Lucy Pink of Clear Lake, nine years old, set up a lemonade stand on Locust Street Wednesday between Co. Rd. 39 and 3rd Street in Monticello to raise funds for the Maurer family. Little did she know, she’d be tasked to run the stand for a second day on Thursday.
“Someone from the store across the street came over Wednesday and took a picture and posted it to Facebook,” Rachel said. “It got hundreds of views and everybody started asking if the stand would be open again the next day so they could come by. Pretty amazing stuff.”
So Rachel asked Lucy if she wanted to and Lucy jumped at the chance.
“She just loves doing these kinds of things for others,” said Rachel. “If she can help someone in some way, she’ll do it.”
Lucy is a former classmate of Cassy Maurer, who lost her life along with her dad, Chuck, in a two-vehicle crash on Hwy. 10 in Becker Twp. last month. The Pinks plan to present the cash raised and a signed poster to the Maurer family at the Aug. 23 benefit in Clear Lake.
Lucy opened her stand both days at 11 a.m. and worked the enterprising business until 4 p.m. each day. Rachel says Lucy was so efficient, making a list each day to figure out what to bring and how much.
“We held the stand in Monticello because my mom (Lucy’s grandmother) lives right behind here,” said Rachel as she pointed at the apartment complex next to Beef O’Brady’s Restaurant.
“We’ve made $25.50 in like 15 minutes, said Lucy Thursday morning, just minutes after opening up for business.
Two-hundred and fifty dollars was Lucy’s goal for that day. It’s unknown if she actually reached or surpassed that goal but by the way it looked just a half hour into Thursday’s day, it sure looked promising.
Heather Starry of Maple Lake, along with her daughter, Reagan (3) and son, Kallen (5) said they heard about the stand through a Facebook friend. Another family — the Puents, Carol (mom), Anna (10) and Krista (7) said their neighbor in Monticello told them about it so they wanted to come taste the superb lemonade and donate to a worthy cause.
Paramedic Derrick Gloese of CentraCare Monticello had also heard of the fundraiser and stopped to get a cup of Lucy’s lemonade. He and the other familys were gracious enough to sign the poster Lucy plans to give to the Maurer family at the benefit.
This isn’t Lucy’s first venture into fundraising. She’s held lemonade stands before and has donated the majority of her earnings to women’s shelters and Feed My Starving Children. Last year, she took some of her toys and dolls and bagged them up and donated them to the women’s shelter in Anoka.
“I wanted to help,” she said.
Lucy was assisted by her mom, Rachel and Lucy’s sister, Kya, 13 and their friend Halle, 13 — both who had the entire day off to do what they wanted, but chose to spend five hours helping Lucy at the stand.
“People should do this kind of thing and help out even if they don’t know the person or persons it is for,” said Kya.
The benefit for the Maurer family is Aug. 23 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at St. Marcus Church in Clear Lake. It’s a free-will offering event featuring a dinner, silent auction and lots of kids activities. If you missed the lemonade stand and would still like to donate, contact Melissa Fox at 320-743-2481 or go to GoFundMe.com and search “maurer” for Chuck and Cassy’s page.
