“With every cup of lemonade served, it was a sweet reminder that when tragedy hits, people will come together to help one another. Which is exactly what Christ called us to do. Be His hands and feet. Serve others. Love others,” Kendra Boone wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday, July 8, in the afternoon.
Youngsters Rylee Boone and Hayden Hase began a mission the Sunday prior, to help support Camp Mystic, a girls’ camp by the Guadalupe River, who’s dealt with tremendous flooding, which as of Monday, July 11, had claimed 132 lives. Their labor love began that Sunday evening, and Boone shared that the two girls wanted to help and serve in any way possible.
They discussed a goal for a lemonade stand, Lemonade for Love, and their ambitious goal came to $5,000. The adults guiding the young ones were hesitant on an amount that large.
“As a parent, you hope to show your kids the importance of helping others,” Boone wrote in her FB post. “These girls taught us a lesson in dreaming big and having faith that God can make big things happen.”
$12,000: that was the final total. Rylee and Hayden ended up with a total of $6,000 for the day, and then a generous, generous member of the community reached out to match their total. Cord Beard connected with the mission and gave the extra oomph to have the girls surpass their original goal.
“We were riding in the car and me and my mom were talking about Camp Mystic and how sad it was,” Hayden said. “Me and Rylee really wanted to help. We knew that wasn’t possible right now, so we decided to do a lemonade stand. Rylee and I have done lemonade stands so many times together. We knew this one would be special.”
As Boone wrote in her post, their mission is one the girls will never forget. “The community support showed our girls you don’t have to travel across the world to be missionaries,” she shared. “There are opportunities for serving and loving others close to home.”
Rylee is a member of the 4-H Saddle Club, and they help the community each month in their meetings by doing a community service project.
‘Serving the community is something I have been able to do and it feels good to give back, Rylee said. “At the end of the day I was excited because $6000 will definitely help, and they can decide if they want to give it to the parents of the girls still missing or if they want to use it to rebuild the camp.”
Their reactions to the total amount were something like this: “When our moms finished counting the money, we did a drumroll and when they told us $6000, we hugged! “ Hayden said. “The next day we went to visit Cord Beard at his office and he told us he was matching what we made. I couldn’t believe it. I’m very thankful.”
“I was like oh my gosh this is amazing!” Rylee said. “When I saw the news reports I was just so sad and it made me want to go help. I wanted to help clean up Camp Mystic and the town and go pray with the parents of the missing girls.”
Lemonade for Love became the perfect answer. Members of the community came one after another, donating and sharing encouraging words to the girls. Boone said it reminded her of the goodness that still flows throughout the community we live in.
“Amidst so many negative situations lately, GOOD prevailed today,” she posted. “Thank you. From the bottom of our hearts. Thank YOU to those that came and supported our girls with their mission to help Camp Mystic. You are constantly pouring back into our community and your generosity doesn’t go unnoticed.”
