Family lemonade stand nets over $1,000
By Dennis Fujimoto – The Garden Island
LIHU‘E — David Wyllie celebrated his ninth birthday Monday, and it was memorable in more ways than one.
The Kalaheo School student had spent the past two weeks with his mother, Ruth, and sisters Sara, 11, and Kristy, 8, distributing free lemonade to donors to their personal tsunami relief fund.
Ruth Wyllie said they started two weeks ago Sunday, when the children decided they wanted to do something to help victims of the massive natural disaster, and settled on offering lemonade to people who wanted to contribute towards the disaster-relief fund.
Meeting with overwhelming success on their first day out at the Po‘ipu end of the Koloa by pass road (Ala Kinoiki), the family continued their efforts in between David Wyllie’s baseball practices and games.
That resulted in three more outings, and Sunday, Jan. 23, was the family’s final outing in Koloa, where Ruth Wyllie said she started crying because of the people’s generosity.
“There was one local lady who stopped by and gave $5. She later returned with a check for $50. And, she came back again with another check for $50,” the mother said. “And, there was this visitor who was staying at the Hyatt Regency, who upon learning what the children were trying to do, wrote out a check for $100.” That put the family over their goal of trying to raise at least $1,000 for the American Red Cross.
Once everything was totaled, Ruth Wyllie arranged with Alfred Darling, executive director of the American Red Cross Kaua‘i chapter, to meet at the Lihu‘e American Red Cross office to have the children present the check on Monday after they got out of school.
But, when they showed up with the cashier’s check which mom said cost them $8, the office was closed, and the director was driving off, despite her efforts to flag him down.
As resourceful as the children had been over their two week fund-raising efforts, locked doors could not deter their celebration of David Wyllie’s birthday, as they simply put the check in an envelope and slipped it through the mail-deposit slot.
Coincidentally, Ruth Wyllie pointed out that all three children have birthdays that coincide with major events — one daughter celebrating her 10th birthday on the day of the World Trade Center disaster, another having a birthday that matches Hurricane ‘Iniki’s arrival.
David’s ninth birthday they’ll always remember, Ruth Wyllie said.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
