LLANO—Jenny Patrick’s daughters—ages 10, 11 and 13—love to set up a lemonade stand on their front porch during the summer. This summer, they recruited other girls, enlisted moms to do some baking and set up a stand at Llano High School.
They did it to help the people of nearby Kerr County, which suffered from the deadly July 4 flooding of the Guadalupe River. The girls raised $4,095 for the Texans on Mission’s disaster relief effort.
“We learned about Texas on Mission through Nathan Buchanan, who came to speak at our church,” said Patrick, a member of First Baptist Church in Llano. “It just kind of got the wheels spinning about how we can help Texans on Mission” respond to the flood.
‘So many hurting and suffering families’
Eleven-year-old Ramsey Patrick said she “wanted to help with the lemonade stand because I knew there were so many hurting and suffering families out there.”
Doing the project meant “I was doing something good for the community and showing some compassion for the families in pain,” she added. “I am very grateful for having the opportunity to help them.”
Ben March, senior donor relations officer with Texans on Mission, said: “I had the chance to speak with Jenny Patrick after Texans on Mission received this special gift. What these girls did, with support from their church and families, is inspiring. They are learning early in life the great responsibility and joy that Christians have in coming to the aid of hurting people.”
Buchanan, who spoke at First Baptist after the flood, is Texans on Mission volunteer coordinator. He had been scheduled earlier to speak at the church, but after the flood he was able to tell what the missions organization was doing about an hour’s drive away in Kerr County, as Christians in Llano and the nation prayed and awaited news about the victims.
The message “really opened up an opportunity for us to brainstorm about how we could help with flood victims,” Patrick said.
“So, we decided to take something that our girls love to do just on a normal day, which is the lemonade stand, and really escalate it to a bigger scale to help out the flood victims.”
Involved the whole community
It became the “LEMON-‘AID’ Stand & Bake Sale” on July 14 at Llano High School, where Patrick is a counselor.
What began as a family effort, then a church one, eventually involved the whole community. “We’re a part of a small community,” and the school often becomes the focal point for local efforts.
The Patrick girls’ regular lemonade stands are normally a means to “get them away from the TV” and start interacting with neighbors, their mother said. The special event enabled them to involve other girls and church members.
Twelve girls spearheaded the effort, with their seven moms supporting.
The girls “definitely wanted a hand in all of it,” Patrick said. “They wanted to help count … and help deposit the money.”
And they had never handled so much money. “It was $4,095, … and so it was big for our town. It was a big amount for them (the girls). It’s an amount that they don’t ever have in their hands or their pockets in their own lemonade stands,” she said.
“It was a great lesson for them. On a normal lemonade stand day, people might drop off 50 cents or a dollar”
Neighbors eager to ‘show up and help’
The girls learned their community and church “will show up and help,” Patrick added.
The girls did not charge for the lemonade or baked goods. Instead, they just asked people to donate for the cause.
“I would say anywhere from $20 to $50 was a typical amount that someone would come and give,” Patrick said. “And so we didn’t have a lot of ones.”
It also was great for the “older members” of the church to see the “younger youth in their church really stepping up to the plate.”
Llano is about 60 miles from Kerrville and about 80 miles from Camp Mystic. They are not “right next door,” but the people of Llano regularly travel to Kerrville for sporting events and to shop, Patrick said.
“The flood, in general, has just been hard on us … not only because we’re close, but we also have daughters,” she said, referencing the deaths of more than 20 girls at Camp Mystic.
“It’s just really touched our hearts, and I want to teach my children service and how to serve their church and how to serve their community.”
A spiritual exercise
The Lemon-Aid effort became a spiritual exercise, as well.
“The lemonade was prayed over; the baked items were prayed over,” Patrick said.
What happened along the river is “such a tragedy.”
“At the same time I think God’s using us together to help each other,” she said.
“I think that’s what Texas is known for, but also that’s what Christians are known for,” she added.
So, this has been a great time to not just “teach our kids about service” but to help them “see how the church can come together to help others,” she said.
This is not Patrick’s first connection with Texans on Mission. Her grandfather, the late Eugene Bennett, served with Texas Baptist Men, the former name of Texans on Mission.
“He built churches all around Texas with Texas Baptist Men,” So, when Buchanan spoke at First Baptist, “I recognized the group and the name, and it was just something special to my heart.”
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