Lemonade stands are a summertime staple for any kid, but residents at Prairie Lakes Seniors Community showed off that older folks can still sling summertime refreshments like the younger crowd during their recent lemonade fundraiser.
On July 5th, residents of the Prairie Lakes Seniors Community held the first lemonade stand of the summer-long fundraising event to raise money for their annual end-of-summer carnival on August 30th.
Raquelle Quinn, Recreation Coordinator for Prairie Lakes Seniors Community says the first event was quite well attended, raising more than $200 from lemonade sales alone, and now that the word is out, she says the seniors hope to raise even more than last year.
“The last time we ran it last summer, some days we raised over $600 on busier days so it’s really good and the residents just love to get out and be in the sunshine and see new faces,” she says.
According to Quinn, the idea to host a lemonade stand stemmed from a place of creative fundraising endeavours that could get the home’s residents involved, while doing some good in the community by celebrating the spirit of summer.
“Our previous coordinator was looking for fundraising ideas because we do this big carnival for our residents at the end of the summer,” she says. “We were looking for ways to have a big fundraiser that catches more people than just family members, that catches more people out in the community.”
The Recreation Coordinator adds that while the lemonade stand event helps with fundraising for the carnival’s operations, the event allows seniors to break out of their otherwise “routine” lifestyles, by getting involved in public service, and meeting new people while they do it.
“They just love to do different things, they love to have something different, they get so tired of having a routine and they love to do something different,” she says. “Because it comes back into the home all the money goes towards something they can enjoy at the end of the summer, they just love feeling like they are also helping.”
Numerous lemonade stand events are scheduled throughout the rest of summer into August. A glass of lemonade is $2 with 100 per cent of the proceeds going towards recreation at Prairie Lakes.
