Fifty cents can’t buy very much these days, but it can get you a cool glass of lemonade at the end of Jordyn Davis’ driveway.
But she isn’t saving up for a new bike or a new backpack for school. She is donating all the money she makes to help children with cancer.
“I don’t want to keep the money,” she said adamantly. “It’s for a very good cause.”
The seven-year-old Elmira resident – she’ll be eight in October – has been selling lemonade at the end of her driveway for the past two weeks, and has created quite a buzz around town. She raised more than $70 in the first two days alone, including the $5 from her own piggy-bank to add to the collection.
“Everyone has been touched by cancer,” she said, adding that she just wants to help kids who are sick feel better. Jordyn lost two great-grandparents to cancer, and her grandmother is battling the disease right now.
“Some people ask me if I know any kids with cancer, and I say no, luckily.”
Next Friday, Jordyn and her mother, Carey, will head down to the cancer clinic at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener to donate the money.
“We asked to meet the kids,” said Carey, “but their immune systems are so poor, we decided to just go to the foundation for a picture and present them with a cheque.”
They’re not sure what the hospital will do with the money, but the important thing is that they have it.
“She wants it to go to children’s cancer,” Carey explained. “Whether it goes to funding or research, I don’t think she really cares one way or another.”
Jordyn was inspired to start fundraising when she heard about a friend who had a similar idea. She initially tried to sell what she calls “knick knacks” – balloons, stickers, and pictures she drew herself – but quickly decided that lemonade would be a better sell.
And with the recent spell of hot weather, the switch was right on the money.
“A lot of people have been giving more than just 50 cents,” says Carey. “One of the mothers I do daycare for gave $20. People are really generous when they know it’s for a good cause.”
So far, they have raised $133.12, but Jordyn hasn’t done it all on her own. Her friend Adriane Uttley has been helping her pour the lemonade, and another friend, Katie Carreon, helped make the signs.
Jordyn is preparing to head into Grade 3 and her two favourite classes – gym, and recess – but as her fundraising efforts for this summer wind down she is already making plans to do it all again next year, but for a different cause that is much closer to home.
She is going to donate all of her money next summer to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, because her father Rob passed away on Mar. 12, 2009 after suffering a heart attack.
“I’m really proud of her,” Carey said with a smile. “She took this all upon herself.”
