Age 10 Girl Learns Mom Has Breast Cancer, Starts Lemonade Stand for Heartfelt Reason
At 10 years old, learning that a parent has cancer can be a helpless feeling. Although you want to do everything you can to help, much of the outcome is out of your hands.
For one Illinois fifth grader, finding out that her mom had breast cancer meant it was time to get to work.
Olivia Ohlson’s mind was not just on her mother — she was thinking of all the women who suffer from breast cancer.
“I know my mom has lots of family and friends who take care of her but other people don’t so they need more support,” she said.
So, Olivia did what any 10-year-old would do to raise money — she started a lemonade stand.
“I always wanted to have a lemonade sale and when my mom got cancer I wanted to raise funds for women like her,” she told ABC News.
“I thought that since I wanted to raise money, I could have a lemonade stand.”
Olivia sold pink lemonade and asked some local bakeries to chip in to help her cause. A local bakery sent over some shortbread cookies in the shape of a pink ribbon.
“It was very touching,” Gretchen Vetter of Tag’s Bakery said. “I was very moved by it so I was more than willing to help.”
When it was all said and done, Olivia raised $4,500 from her lemonade stand.
She plans on donating the money to Northshore Kellogg Cancer Center, where her mother is receiving treatment.
Olivia is planning on holding a second bake sale soon and hopes to get her total earnings even higher. Her mom, 50-year-old Gini Ohlson, is extremely proud of her daughter’s charitable efforts.
“She didn’t just go with the fun part,” Ohlson told ABC News. “She brought everything out, made the signs, did the display and had friends who came and helped her during the sale as well.”
“It’s important for our breast cancer patients and their families to receive the support they need for every aspect of the cancer journey,” Dr. Bruce Brockstein of NorthShore Kellogg Cancer Center told ABC News in a statement.
“The funds raised from Olivia’s bake sale are going to do just that. My colleagues and I here at the NorthShore Kellogg Cancer Center are so appreciative of Olivia’s efforts to help our breast cancer patients.
“I hope that her efforts inspire others of all ages to support those who are going through cancer treatment.”
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