Summer vacation and allowance are perhaps the two best things about childhood.
But four Fort Supply kids were willing to sacrifice a portion of both to help out some other kids in need.
Siblings Evan Elliott, 6; Ethan Elliott, 9; Elizabeth Elliott, 11; and Elaine Elliott, 13 have established their own aptly named “Kids Helping Kids” organization in an effort to raise money for school supplies and clothes for a family from May that is experiencing some financial trouble.
“They have a friend, both their parents were laid off and they have six kids,” said Haley Dunnihoo, 18, who is helping the Elliotts along with another friend Jenna Bradley.
The children in the family they are helping include two six-year-olds, an eight-year-old, an 11-year-old, and a 13-year-old as well as a young baby, Dunnihoo said.
“So the (Elliott) kids took their allowance and a friend from Sun Loan helped us with some money to get started, and here we are selling (iced) tea and lemonade,” she said.
“We didn’t know if everyone would like lemonade, so we made sweet tea and unsweet tea for diabetics and those who don’t like sweet tea,” Elaine Elliott said, noting that they are also selling pink lemonade which seems to be the most popular.
The group of kids finally settled on a classic summertime lemonade stand after a brainstorming session in which they also considered other fundraising ideas such as dog walking, baby sitting and house cleaning, Dunnihoo said.
They chose the lemonade stand, though, because “it’s fun and easy,” Elaine Elliott said.
However, the enterprise does have its drawbacks as well, as pointed out by the youngest Elliott. Although he said he enjoys being a part of the lemonade stand, Evan Elliott noted “I don’t like getting all sweaty.”
But Elaine Elliott and Dunnihoo said they can take the heat knowing that what they are doing will help someone.
“Our goal is $1,000. It wouldn’t be so much but we wanted to help them with school clothes, too,” said Elaine Elliott.
A sign on the tent where they are selling their lemonades and iced teas showed that they had only raised about $150 toward their goal by Wednesday afternoon.
However, Dunnihoo said that it was only the fourth day that the group had the stand open.
She said they first opened the stand out at Fort Supply Lake on Sunday, but had to relocate to Wal-Mart in Woodward after learning they weren’t allowed to host a fundraiser at the lake since it was on federal land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Things went well at the lake on Sunday and at Wal-Mart on Monday, Dunnihoo said. But then things slowed a bit on Tuesday and by 2 p.m. Wednesday, they had only had a couple of customers, she said.
Nevertheless, she said the group is determined to continue their fundraising efforts until they reach their goal.
“Hopefully we reach it before the school year starts,” Dunnihoo said.
In an effort to spread the word about what they are doing, she said the group has placed homemade flyers in several businesses around Woodward.
But in addition to raising money through their lemonade and iced tea sales, the group is also accepting monetary donations as well as donations of school supplies.
To help out all you have to do is drop by their tent, which is located near the southeast entrance to the Wal-Mart parking lot. The kids start serving their cool drinks around 1 p.m. and stay out “until 7 or 8, depending on the weather and how busy we are,” Dunnihoo said.
You don’t even have to get out of your car as the group offers carside service.
“If they just pull up, we’ll come to them,” Dunnihoo said.
