Returning home one Saturday afternoon I found a basket at our door with $9.50 of cash and a note:
“this is from our lemonade stand and it is for the orphans; from Neekie, Bella, Max, Grace, Fiona and Phillip“.
I was floored!
We live in a small neighborhood and I knew these kids were my neighbors. Apparently Neekie (10) organized this herself–and it was a well-organized enterprise!
Here she is (on the far right) with her friends (from left: Fiona, Grace, Max and Bella).
Since then they have held other lemonade stands and mailbox washes and even car washes with Phillip biking around the neighborhood to solicit interest. At the lemonade stand above they had a menu of options that included a slushee (on order, Neekie would run inside and get her mother to make one in the blender) or for about 5 cents you could pet their sweet Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Sky (in the background near the potted plant).
Neekie’s mother, Fojan, tells us that she’s cleaning out her closet to find clothes to send to the Kenyan orphans and is quite motivated in all this. Last month she invited us to present to the students at her school, Bowman International School in Palo Alto. Neekie introduced me to her fellow students!
Neekie was a keynote speaker at our annual Achungo Tea event in December and made sure to drag her friends on-stage with her to be interviewed. It was truly the highlight of the event.
