Letters For Lemonade

Several local students are busy spending their first days of summer exchanging lemonade for letters of support and encouragement to U.S. troops stationed overseas.

C.J. Donofry, who just completed fifth grade at Goodnoe Elementary, and his sister Julia, who just completed second grade, said they got the idea when one of their neighbor's sons headed overseas to Afghanistan.

C.J. credits his sister with the initial idea. He said about a month ago, Julia thought it would be nice to start a lemonade stand to raise money for care packages to be sent to the troops. They decided to collect letters of support that could be sent with the care packages.

"All of the sudden my principal, the parish (St. Andrew's Catholic Church), the Borough, and the library all said they would help us," C.J. said.

Julia wanted to get started right away, but the pair realized they needed to do a lot of planning to pull it off.

C.J. said that they initially wanted to collect 100 letters, but surpassed that Wednesday with 147. Since they have been able to spread the word, he set a new personal goal of gathering at least 500 letters in the next seven weeks.

"We made boxes to collect the letters all over town," Julia said.

C.J. and Julia were joined by several of their friends, who were eager to help.

Rebecca Ripans and Amanda Bedard, who also completed second grade at Goodnoe Wednesday, said they were excited about helping sell the lemonade this summer and were optimistic about raising a lot of money for care packages.

The group has a lot of support from their moms, who are supervising the project.

“That’s what moms do. We take a good idea and we try to make it happen," said Debbie Donofry, C.J. and Julia's mother.

She said they have already gained a lot of community support and that one of her main goals was raising awareness of the troops’ needs.

“It’s really about neighbors and communities and friends supporting each other,” Donofry said. She said the project is great, but a big effort and she couldn’t have taken it on without the support and encouragement of her friends.

The lemonade stand will be up each Wednesday from 1 to 3 p.m. through the end of July at 16 South Norwood Avenue in the borough. People who stop by can drop off letters, donations for care packages, grab a cup of lemonade, or even sit down to make a card to send overseas. It is open for kids and adults of all ages.

Letters can also be dropped off during business hours at the Newtown Borough Hall, Newtown Library Company, Goodnoe Elementary School or St. Andrew’s Parish Office.