For a Good Cause...and Doubting Thomas

It's Sunday afternoon I'm frantically loading up the car for our annual Teasdale/swimming lessons trip and Emily keeps insisting that I help her find a picture from the web for her lemonade stand flyer.  In a rush I keep putting her off but my persistant Emily forces the issue until I finally take a minute and help her look for just the right picture.  As I'm reading her sign I ask her where does she plan on doing this lemonade stand?  Well Emily said in front of the Wayne County Pool.  Oh and here it says for a "good cause"  what is this good cause.  Emily then said that when she was down in Teasdale with Allyson she overheard my mom talking about how this could possibly be the very last year for the Wayne Pool because it's been losing money and they county just can't afford it anymore.  "So we are going to raise money so the pool can stay open".    In my mind I think Oh boy just what I need a lemonade stand to watch over but I'm quiet hoping this idea is fleeting and she forgets about it before we reach the Wayne County line.

Well I was wrong. All the way down Emily carefully colored each flyer.

The the next day after swimming lessons Emily Bentley and Jane start harassing me about doing the lemonade stand.  I tell them "No" about a hundred times but they keep insisting.  Finally on Tuesday my mom says "If they've got an idea let them go with it".   I can't tell you how many times I went along with you and the rest of you girls big ideas" .  I had to agree I do remember coming up with lots of  ideas with my best friend Melanie like  putting on a performance on the trampoline to the beach boys song "Kokomo" and charging 50 cents and scattering a huge sams club bag of popcorn everywhere.  In the end I think our moms were the only ones who came and paid and I never remember my mom putting a stop to any of my crazy ideas,   popcorn and all.   Emily hands my mom the flyer and she reads "For a good cause" and my moms asks the same question.  What is this good cause.  So they explain about the pool and my mom said I don't think a lemonade stand will help save the pool so lets think of another good cause.  The girls are all stumped so my mom suggests that they have a relative who is a small boy in Bicknell who has cancer and has to drive to Salt Lake every week or so for chemotherapy which is really expensive and he could probably use some money. The girls were very inquisitive asking things like why is it so expensive and we responded with things like it takes a lot of money for gas and maybe to buy lunch and things while they are there.  The girls got excited about that idea and I agreed to let them do a lemonade stand if they do it in Teasdale instead of Bicknell.  They agreed and said if we do it in Teasdale can we do it in Torrey tomorrow.  I agreed thinking after a day of selling lemonade in a tiny town they won't want to do it the next day. My mom also said it would be a good idea to offer some cookies or something else as well.  So we spent some time making homemade oreo cookies and off we went to set them up in front of the DUP building on main street Teasdale.

 I left them in the heat of the sun at 2 PM saying things like are you sure you guys want to stay here its so hot.  They were all determined to make the lemonade stand happen and I left them with my cell phone thinking I'd get a call and be back in a 1/2 hour or so.  Well time went by and my mom got a few texts.  Here is some screen shots of my mom and them communicating.

They also took a few sun burned faces selfies

Meanwhile I'm at home amazed that they are sticking with it.  Around 4 I question if I should go get them and my mom says "Wait until they ask to come home"    Finally they texted they wanted to come home and when I picked them up they were so excited because someone stopped and asked what the good cause was and they said "We are raising money for my moms second cousin's little boy who has cancer"  Whoever it was said "I know that boy  his name is Wyatt and gave them 18 dollars and said keep the change."    So after subtracting what Grandma Becky gave them for their till they ended up with over $45.00.  I was amazed!!  I was also amazed they wanted to do it again but this time in Torrey where there was a little more traffic.  So once again after swimming lessons Emily and I made up a batch of Bart's chocolate chip cookies and I drove them over there with their money and specific instructions to stay out of the busier road and always stay with the lemonade stand.  Here's the second batch of texts.  Less this time I think they were a little more busy.  

When my mom picked them up they were 3 very happy girls with a grand total of $83.85 and only one cookie left.  

Later that night I overheard the girls conversation it went something like this "It would be really nice to have all the money for ourselves."  Yeah but it really is for a good cause.  I was also really touched when Emily had a $5 bill to take to the swimming pool to get treats but instead said " I think I'd rather give this to Wyatt and put it in the envelope along with homemade cards and all the money. 

The next afternoon my mom texted Wyatt's mom and she said come on over he'd like to meet you.  It was an awkward sort of meeting.  Wyatt was a very shy 4 year old and I think all the kids were trying to figure out what cancer looks like and if he looked "sick".   

I'm not quite sure Dayson and Aaron knew what was going on but Dayson told his mom he went to visit a very sick boy.

After we loaded them up in the car my mom asked them how they felt.  They said good and then Bentley said "I have a very warm feeling in my heart"  May these girls always remember that warm feeling and know the greatest happiness comes from giving instead of getting.  May I always remember to have more faith like a child that even in a small sleepy town great things can happen for a "good cause"