Jason and Ashley Mlyniec and their two sons were some of the many people — adults and kids alike — sporting sunny yellow attire Thursday at Centennial Park.
The Batavia family had set up a table with a pitcher of lemonade and glass jars of lemon suckers and lemon puffballs. They definitely fit the theme of the inaugural lemonade stand fundraiser hosted by Rochester Regional Health and United Memorial Medical Center.
“We’re on the hospital foundation board,” Mrs. Mlyniec said. “This is for a good cause. We’ll do it again next year.”
Under the umbrella of RRH, each lemonade stand was created by individual families and groups that wanted to help raise money for the Swaddle Program. While one participant blew bubbles at her table, another stood behind a Charlie Brown-themed “the doctor is in” sign, and all of them had a special twist to their decor, including plenty of lemons.
The first-time event chairman was 10-year-old Patrick Casey, chosen for his prior involvement with fundraisers.
“I had some spare money, and I gave it to a fundraiser for the hospital, because it’s for a good cause,” he said. “If you’ve got some spare money lying around, give it to a good cause.”
Last year his mom, Lauren was talking with others about how to get young kids involved in the lemonade stand idea, and she in turn told Patrick about it.
“He thought it would be pretty fun to do for the summer,” she said.
The Caseys — including the chairman's father Peter and sisters, Madelyn and Emily, who wanted to help out — weren’t certain how many glasses of lemonade they handed out. Though Patrick did have to make a run or two for some more cups. Overall, the experience has been “cool,” he said.
“Knowing that you made all this happen, and all these people coming here to raise money,” he said.
As for the money raised, it will go for the purchase of baby swaddles, Senior Development Officer Lori Aratari said.
“Working with the maternity department, we realized that we didn't have the funds to be able to purchase the baby swaddles. So I kind of put my thinking cap on and said what can we do that would interest the community and engage families to want to support purchasing the baby swaddles for every baby that's born?” she said. “We obviously want to make sure our babies are safe when we let them leave the hospital. We're hoping that this will become an annual event. And as you can see, folks are outdoing themselves with the variety of displays that they have to sell their lemonade, so it really was open to them to be creative.”
The goal was to raise $4,000 to buy 500 baby swaddles, and $3,600 had already been raised before the 5 p.m. start time through the hospital’s Just Giving online platform, Aratari said.(For more about the Baby Swaddle initiative, see related story, Tuck 'em in, keep 'em safe.)
Photos by Howard Owens
Top photo: Patrick Casey, 10, this year's chairman of the first-time Lemonade Stands fundraiser for Rochester Regional Health and United Memorial Medical Center Foundation.
Second photo: The Casey family -- Patrick, Madelyn, Peter, Emily and Lauren -- enjoys working its stand Thursday at Centennial Park, Batavia.
Emerson Warner with lactation nurse Jay Balduf
Marigrace Cummings pours a cool cup of lemonade for Rick and Jane Scott
Maiy, Knox and Fae work at their lemonade stand
Mercedes Houseknecht plays in bubbles.
