PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) – You may have seen Caroline Gallagher and her lemonade stand as you pass through St. Petersburg.
Caroline is a 6-year old-cancer survivor who has spent the last few years raising money to fight childhood cancer by selling lemonade alongside her younger sister, Charlotte.
Together, the girls run C&C Lemonade Factory and in 2019 alone, they were able to raise $13,000.
This year, Caroline told WLFA.com, she had had even bigger plans. She partnered with the Tampa Bay Rowdies to host her famous lemonade stand at Al Lang Stadium on a Rowdies game day. Caroline even enlisted the help of corporate partners and sponsors and set a fundraising goal of $20,000. But then the coronavirus pandemic hit and threatened to sour the little girl’s hard work.
According to Caroline’s father, Charles Gallagher, his daughter didn’t want to cancel her event; she decided to turn lemons into lemonade.
“We will do a virtual lemonade stand on Facebook,” said Caroline.
“We’re trying to do our best to adapt and still make this a successful event because clearly cancer is not taking a break from things,” said Charles.
This year is Caroline’s 4th year running her stand, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation’s Lemonade Days.
The C&C Lemonade Factory plans to hold their event on Zoom and Facebook Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. According to Charles, Caroline and her sister will raffle off prizes and guests will have the opportunity to donate online.
“We have a lot of community support with local businesses and vendors having donated to help us with baskets and prizes and gift packs for donors to transition that into a virtual event,” said Charles.
Event sponsors include, the Rowdies, Rollin’ Oats, Northwestern Mutual, 3 Daughters Brewing, Kahwa Coffee, Maple Street Biscuits, Pacific Counter, Sweet and Lowe Bakery and Sunshine City Kids.
“One of the best things about our events every year, is that it’s the collection of people who can get together and talk and speak and share their stories. Now, that will be able to occur in a virtual context. So, not the same way in a front yard but we’re going to do that in a virtual way,” said Charles.
To join the C&C Lemonade Factory virtual stand, visit their Facebook page for more information.
