SoCal Children Raise Over $2.5K For Australian Wildlife Through Lemonade Stand
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO (CBSLA) — A group of children in San Juan Capistrano gathered together Thursday to hold a lemonade stand to help raise funds for animals impacted by the raging wildfires in Australia.
The Orange County school children, 8,000 miles from Australia, worked hard to help koalas, kangaroos, and other wildlife injured in the devastating fires.
Along with lemonade, the troupe sold cookies, books, stuffed animals, and even had a mini pony join them.
Former Laguna Beach kindergarten teacher Jenny Carlson helped her children come up with the lemonade stand plan after they felt the need to do something about the wildfires, estimated to have killed roughly one billion animals.
"We were watching the news and there was an image of a koala being scooped up in a blanket by a helper and my daughter started crying," Carlson said. "So we talked about how sad it was and the things going on...and she said she wanted to do something about it."
"The first thing that came to her head, probably what comes to every 8-year-olds head, is to have a lemonade stand."
The group assembled the stand on a corner in San Juan Capistrano to draw attention to the effort.
Their goal was to raise at least $1,000 to donate to Australian wildlife relief organizations and by shortly after 5:20 p.m., the children had raised more than $2,500.
