Lemonade for Leah: Truly a Community Effort

To the editor:

We stuck out the rain and made another $250 to bring our total collected (for Children's Hospital Boston and the Fernandes family) to $1,868. WOW! That doesn't include a couple of the piggy banks that were generously dumped into our bucket! What special kids! By 3 p.m. Sunday all the kids were completely drenched and jumping in puddles! With each customer they would rush to the stand! We even made a couple car side deliveries! The kids worked hard and their cuteness paid off!

We are excited to pass our donations over. I will be mailing Children's Hospital their (donation) and sending the donation to Leah's family on Wednesday. There is still plenty of time to donate!

There were a few really touching moments over the weekend. The hardest for me, was when a motorcycle rode up with a "Ride for Leah" shirts on. A very, very nice couple came to our stand and dropped a very generous donation into our donation bucket saying one was from their friend in Virginia and one was from them. They turned out to be Leah's neighbors. Tears welled up in my eyes knowing they were so proud that Leah had touched so many people their hearts hurt. So overwhelmed with the experience and emotion I can't remember their names, but I will never forget them. The husband took a picture with his phone and said he would send it to Leah's parents.

We were truly blessed this weekend. The community definitely helped. We also had a another very large and generous donation made by a man who was a childhood cancer survivor. 

One of my friends who participated, Kara Coddaire said she thought the outpouring of support was amazing! The kids learned a valuable lesson and had fun while doing it. We're looking forward to making this a summer tradition. is my new mission! I already have big ideas for next year.  

Cathy Didick

Attleboro, MA