Plan B Forum

Awesome Kid Raises $30K From Lemonade Stand, Uses Money to Fight Human Trafficking

By Erin SherbertMon., Aug. 20 2012 at 8:35 AM

Vivienne Harr, lemonade aficionado and future president

While you all have been lazily basking in the sun this summer, this 8-year-old girl has been working her tail off to change the world, one lemon at a time.

In the Northern California city of Fairfax, Vivienne Harr has spent the last 57 days of her summer vacation turning lemons into lemonade -- literally. She's been selling the sweet, refreshing beverage with plans to use all her proceeds to fight human trafficking across the world.

As of Saturday afternoon, the young entrepreneur had already earned more than $30,000 at her makeshift business, which she appropriately dubbed Make-A-Stand! Lemonade: The Sweet Taste of Freedom.
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She's plans to keep selling lemonade until she raises $150,000, using only fair-trade lemons, of course.

"And it's really hard to find fair-trade things. I mean, we're buying fair-trade things because, I mean, you can't be freeing slaves and having them to work harder for the cause that you're trying to do to help them be free," Harr told reporters.

Initially, she was charging $2 per cup of lemonade (raspberries optional), but as business boomed, she decided to leave it up to her customers to pay whatever they wanted to in exchange for a delightful glass of lemonade.

"We're betting on the goodness of people, and we found that the average price went up $18 when we made it free," her dad said. "We said, 'Pay what's in your heart.'"

Every dime is going to the Half Moon Bay-based nonprofit called Not For Sale, whose mission is to fight human trafficking and modern-day slavery around the world.

If you can't make your way up to Fairfax to buy a cup of lemonade, feel free to kick in for Vivienne's cause at http://www.makeastandlemonade.com.

"And it's really hard to find fair-trade things. I mean, we're buying fair-trade things because, I mean, you can't be freeing slaves and having them to work harder for the cause that you're trying to do to help them be free,"

dales wrote:Yannow, Jim...I'm surprised the city of Fairfax or Sonoma County health officials haven't put this kid out of business.