Berg remembers our 'lemonade girl'

Yellow balloons tied to poles around campus could mean only one thing: the return of the Christi Thomas Memorial Lemonade Stand, which returned with a special guest. Nine-year-old Shayla Thomas, younger sister of Christi, greeted guests and helped pour lemonade.

 

This tradition has been done each fall for the past five years by junior education majors in Dr. Lori Arnold-Grine’s class. This year, members of the education honorary Kappa Delta Pi, which Lori advises, helped with some of the preparations.

 

“The students take the idea and run with it, all too eager to help for a great cause,” Lori said.

 

The tradition is based on the book Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand by Liz and Jay Scott, about their own little girl who battled neuroblastoma, a form of pediatric cancer. Christi Thomas had taken on the tradition of holding lemonade stands, and this tradition started at Heidelberg. “It is a great way to model for the early childhood students how to be advocates for childhood needs,” Lori said.

 

Christi passed away in September 2006 from neuroblastoma, and the students have graciously helped to keep the tradition alive in her memory.

 

Before the lemonade stand fund-raiser, Shayla read Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand to Lori’s class.

 

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