Girls use lemonade, treats to help those in need
Alexis and Grace Mescher stand next to their sign on South First Avenue in Guttenberg on Thursday, July 10. The girls raised money for the Community Resource Center and other causes by selling lemonade and baked goods. (Press photo by Steve Van Kooten)
By Steve Van Kooten
Passersby on South First Street in Guttenberg might have seen a big yellow sign advertising a lemonade and bake sale this past week.
The promise of homemade treats is enough to get anyone to pull over, but Alexis and Grace Mescher aren't just trying to make a little spending money. They're selling those treats to help people in need.
Alexis said that the original idea was a response to the pandemic. "It was the year of COVID, so I wanted the money to go toward relief for people."
She wanted to do a drive-thru for people to pick up food, but that idea proved difficult in 2020, so their mother, Beth Mescher, helped them find a more feasible way to assist people in the community.
"Mom had the idea of doing baked goods and lemonade and giving it to the Family Resource Center," recalled Alexis.
"They were really concerned about how they could help people," said Beth. "Initially, they wanted to donate the money to people with COVID, and I really didn't know how to do that. At the time, the Family Resource Center helped people with COVID."
The girls decided to donate money for COVID relief and school supplies for families. The lemonade stand went so well the first year that they ran out of supplies on the first day.
"The next year, they wanted to do it again, so we just said for school supplies. Then after they made so much money, we decided to add another thing. We gave some to the activity department at the care center for new bingo cards and different activities," said Beth.
For the past two years, the girls have donated half of the proceeds for school supplies (they've even packed the book bags for the Resource Center) and the other half to help those in medical crisis.
"The Family Resource Center gets what they need. We used to buy it, but then they might have too many notebooks and need 20 more calculators, so we just give [the money] to them now," said Beth.
According to Alexis, the money can be used for gas cards to get people in need to medical appointments or to stay in hotels when someone has to go to Rochester, Minn., or Iowa City, for example.
The girls have generated an impressive amount of money over the past five years. In 2020, they raised $600. Over the next three years, they brought in $1,000, $2,600 and $3,600.
This year, they're hoping to cross a big milestone in terms of the total amount of money they've raised over the past five years.
"Hopefully, we'll make it over $10,000 this year," said Beth.
