Following the ribbon cutting ceremony at the III Corps Headquarters on May 4, community members participated in the fourth annual Fort Hood Area Lemonade Day event here May 5-6.
The Lemonade Day event aims to teach Fort Hood’s youth entrepreneurship through real-world experiences of starting and running their own lemonade stand as well as promoting philanthropy.
“It gives them an idea of what it takes in general terms of setting up your own business and becoming more self-sufficient,” said Frank Seffrood, the mayor of Copperas Cove. “It teaches the kids the entrepreneurial side of doing business through their own efforts. It’s just a great thing for character building.”
For one Fort Hood family, Lemonade Day has been the perfect opportunity for giving back to a charitable organization that resides close to their hearts.
“They want to donate to Santa’s Workshop of Fort Hood,” said Trisha Stutz, the mother of three Fort Hood children participating in Lemonade Day. “We’ve used Santa’s Workshop before when we couldn’t afford toys, so they want to give back and help families that need help.”
“I just wanted to make sure that every kid has a fun experience for Christmas,” said Kayla West, the 17-year-old daughter of Stutz. “I want to make sure that they do get something, and it’s not just going to be like, ‘Oh, Santa forgot about us this year.’”
Another Fort Hood family followed in the footsteps of a well-known organization to great success while setting up their business outside the Clear Creek Main Exchange.
“We thought that something would be good with cotton candy in it and we thought of Disney World,” said Arshaae Williams, 10. “We decided to take the magic and put it in the lemonade, and if the lemonade got the magic, it would be even better. We thought no one does it anywhere on Fort Hood, so we thought we could do it here. We became pretty much awesome because we made over $100.”
The Alvarado family used Lemonade Day as a great opportunity to build their lemonade stand as a family, even if the amount of time it took couldn’t be agreed upon.
“It took a whole night and morning!” said Andrea Alvarado, 7.
“About a day? One and a half days?” said Andrea’s brother, Fernanda, 11.
“It took about an hour because we already had the bottom part,” said their mother, Marcela Alvarado.
Lemonade Day has meant many different things to the different families that have participated in the Fort Hood Lemonade Day event, but it still continues the tradition of dotting the streets of neighborhoods with lemonade stands and bringing community members closer together.
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