A lemonade stand at the entrance to Admirals Sound nets $500 for the Hamilton County Humane Society. Dressed in blue and red (the Hamilton County Humane Society colors), friends work the stand on the last day before they delivered their earnings to the shelter.

Sydney Cripps was surfing the web one day after she got home from school at St. Simon the Apostle when she had an idea. On the Humane Society of Hamilton County’s website (www.HamiltonHumane.com) was an article about a private donor that was going to match contributions through the end of June up to $25,000.

“I thought it would be a great way to double our donations, so I got with some friends and opened a lemonade stand,” she said.

It just so happened to be the weekend of the GHPOA neighborhood garage sale, so Cripps gathered her friends and set up a stand at the entrance to Admirals Sound off of Old Stone Drive. With the cooler temperatures, they decided to sell hot chocolate as well which quickly outsold the lemonade. First day sales totaled $202.

“We were all shocked that they raised that much money,” said Sydney’s proud mother, Joy.

Quickly, they created more signs, enlisted some more friends, and paid a visit to Costco to increase their profit margin on their curbside business.

Neighbor and fellow St. Simon student Clare Bielefeld volunteered to help, and platooned with other neighborhood friends to work the Admirals Sound entryway for seven days over the course of four weeks in June.

“People were really nice to us,” said Bielefeld, “one guy even gave us a $20 tip!”

With a goal of reaching $500 by the end of June, Shelby Case, Ainsley Danilson, and Carmen Sullivan rallied on June 29th to raise the final dollars in 100 degree heat. Around 3:00 pm, a Geist resident chipped in a $10 bill, putting them over their goal.

All the girls took a drive up to Noblesville to the Humane Society to make their donation in person.

“This is a substantial donation,” said Francesca Marino with the Hamilton County Humane Society. “These young ladies showed a lot of maturity for their age.”

Next for the girls is another fundraiser, this time to help the Worldwide Wildlife Fund.

“I’m really proud of them. I hope they inspire other kids to get involved and do something positive for our community,” said Joy.

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