Annual Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand To Be Socially Distant

STONY BROOK, NY — The 8th annual Three Village Kids Lemonade Stand will look a bit different this year, though the good nature of the cause remains the same. K-12 student volunteers will try to turn lemons into lemonade and raise money for the Stony Brook Children's Hospital's Child Life Program.

The students will host two events on Aug. 3 due to the coronavirus; one a drive-thru lemonade stand and the other virtually, says Maddie Mastriano, who organizes the events with her brother, Joseph.

"Our goal here is to make sure that all participants and attendees feel safe, and are still able to participate in a way that they feel most comfortable doing so," Maddie wrote in an email.

The first event, Drive-Thru Lemonade Stand, is scheduled 3 to 6 p.m. in the bus circle of Murphy Junior High School, located at 351 Oxhead Road, Stony Brook. Attendees will be required to stay in their cars. Volunteer numbers will be heavily reduced, and they will all be required to wear masks and gloves. The siblings plan to have staggered tents around the bus circle allowing for vehicles to drive safely through to purchase pre-made/sealed lemonade, along with wrapped straws; Do It Yourself lemonade kits to provide attendees the option to make their own lemonade); merchandise and raffle tickets (hoping for only five to six high ticket items to raffle off.)

Event #2, Virtual Lemonade Stand, is scheduled 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. It will take place on Twitch, an online streaming app, under the name 3villagekidslemonadestand.

During the live stream, a similar schedule to the organizers' usual lemonade stand will be followed. One new thing will be allowing viewers the opportunity to join the virtual lemonade stand Joseph created on his Minecraft server. Minecraft is an online video game where players craft various structures and other things in their own world.

During the stream, attendees will have an opportunity to donate directly onto the family's GofundMe page.

"We will provide a quick history of how and why we started; where the money is going; thank our top sponsors, plus add video slide shows of events past & current event sponsor logos," Maddie said. "We will conclude the live stream by pulling raffle tickets from the drive-thru LIVE, as well as announcing this year’s Lemonheads of the District winner."

The money raised this year will help the family buy updated electronic devices for the Child Life Program. Joan Alpers, director of Stony Brook Child Life, told the family, "Technology not only connects people who are quarantined in rooms to friends, family and home, it also helps kids pass the time when they aren't feeling well… While we are not able, obviously, to share names of young patients, we have had many young people with the virus (and many without) benefit from these kinds of device solutions."

The Mastriano's goal will be to provide new devices, such as PlayStation 4 consoles, I-pads and Chromebooks, in every in-patient room and out-patient carts.

"The pandemic has certainly changed so many things in our world, but we strongly believe having the lemonade stand will do what it always does: provide some hope, a sense of community and ultimately turn lemons into lemonade for the Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, Child Life Program," Maddie said.

Sister & brother co-founders and creators Maddie & Joseph Mastriano started the lemonade stand eight years ago in front of their home in Stony Brook when they were 12 and 9 years old, respectively. The event is a community summer tradition that now takes place at Murphy Junior High School with the support and backing of the Three Village Central School District, corporate and local sponsors, and is run by student volunteers from the district and neighboring schools in grades K-12. To date, the students have raised close to $100,000. Maddie will be a junior at Loyola University in Maryland, and Joseph will be a senior at Ward Melville High School.

Maddie and Joseph, along with their parents, Joe and Laura, hosted socially distant Bingo for 70 consecutive nights through the height of the COVID-19 outbreak on Long Island. They ended the streak in late May.