A pop-up lemonade stand near a Collingwood trail served as a vehicle for conversations about racism and privilege this weekend.
The stand, organized and staffed by four elementary school students, also helped raise $800 for the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter charity.
Four Collingwood girls, Zoe (13) and Avery (11) Moffat-Lynch and Sadie (12) and Mia (11) Wortsman, planned and ran the lemonade stand this weekend for five hours on Saturday and three hours on Sunday.
“It felt like we were able to make a difference,” said Avery. “We were surprised by how many people were so generous and gave us a lot. There were a lot of people who asked questions about the charity … there were a lot of conversations. People would stop and stay to talk to us about it.”
With the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, the four girls wore masks and had each customer use the hand sanitizer they provided before serving themselves some lemonade.
Zoe was touched by a group of young women, who initially stopped for lemonade but didn’t have any cash. They promised to come back. When they did return, the lemonade stand was closed, so the women searched for the Moffat-Lynch house to hand over a $30 donation.
“Every age seemed to support them,” said Erin Moffat-Lynch, Zoe and Avery’s mother. “They met a huge amount of people … it seemed to resonate with people. There was more encouragement and support than we could have imagined.”
The four girls had several conversations, particularly about one sign they said caused people to stop and turn around.
The sign read “If you don’t have to think about it, it’s a privilege.”
Erin said each member of the Moffat-Lynch family talked about the sign and what it meant.
“We each had examples,” said Erin. “Going jogging … getting pulled over by the cops … hoodies and fashion … that phrase really resonated for all of us and gave us more perspective.”
Jessica Wortsman, Sadie and Mia’s mother, said she’s proud of all four girls for taking feelings about the issue of racism and doing something to support the Black Lives Matter cause.
“They were really excited to find a way to make a difference,” said Jessica. “It’s hard as a kid to be heard and feel your actions mean something.”
Both Erin and Jessica said they’ve been having conversations about racism, police brutality, and Black Lives Matter as a family.
Jessica said she’s been showing news clips and talking to her kids about what is going on right now.
“Police brutality is a difficult thing to discuss with kids,” she said. “They are raised to believe the police are there to protect them … it’s eye-opening to realize that’s not the case for everybody.”
She said the lemonade stand not only helped her daughters find an outlet to make a difference, but it was also an educational experience to meet different people with varying opinions.
Erin said the family watched a YouTube video about black parents teaching their children how to talk and behave in interactions with police and it floored them.
“We have these conversations often, but in small bits because it can overwhelm kids,” said Erin. “It doesn’t have to be scary, but they have to realize the topic doesn’t go away and it’s important to keep discussing it and doing things about it, even though it’s hard and we all feel like we just want to escape it sometimes.”
Both families are attending a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Collingwood today at noon, which is organized by Collingwood Collegiate Institute students.
“Hopefully more people will do stuff like this and do fundraisers to help,” said Avery. “Kids can make a change. No matter your age, you can make a change.”