Teaching kids to give back-

The Fairyland Cupcake Kids

As I was planning a big garage sale this summer at my house, I had a friend offer to come over and keep the kids busy running a lemonade and cupcake stand.  Great idea!  She also had the fabulous idea of giving the proceeds to a local charity.  We chose Neighbor Impact, because they have a facility in the town where we live, and because they do tangible things like give food to people and help families find housing. 

I advertised the event on Facebook, Craigslist and by pink signs, and included the information about the lemonade stand. 

The garage sale and the lemonade stand were a hit! The local paper even came and took a picture. Can you tell we live in a small town? The girls made big bucks in their princess dresses, even though most of the time they were playing in the back yard.  I guess the moms did some work, too.  The following week we took the girls to get a tour of the facility.  It was great to see what the charity is doing in our community and how they are appreciative of even the smallest offering.
 

I'm pretty sure we ate most of the cupcakes ourselves.  On the other hand, I think the average donation at the lemonade stand was at least $1 over the price of the item.  So our girls learned that people like to give.   Other things they learned:

• Money- counting it, identifying it, making change
• The value of a cupcake (i.e.- don't eat all the merchandise)
• How to greet a customer 
• Sharing with friends
• How sweet it is to "give back."