Kids Hope Lemonade Stand Draws Ribfest Crowds, Donations

While people will be spending cash right and left on food and drinks at Ribfest, a group of Naperville kids hopes they can get a few people to spend some money at their nearby lemonade stand.

The youths aren’t trying to profit from Ribfest. Actually, they are hoping to raise money for pediatric brain tumor research, Karyn Kundra said.

The kids, which include Kundra’s son and daughter, Sean, 9, and Anna, 14, and their friends, sisters Morgan, 14, and Haley Powell, 16, will be selling lemonade and soda with 100 percent of the proceeds going to The Max Lacewell Foundation.

 was only 6 when he died from a rare pediatric brain tumor known as diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, or DIPG. The deadly tumor that forms in the brain stem affects 150 to 200 children annually. Currently there is no cure. His family is trying to raise $2 million in the next four years.

“It was the kids idea, they’ve done a lemonade stand every year,” Kundra said. “They decided to do it for charity  [a few years ago] when their friend was diagnosed with cancer.”

Holding the fund-raiser over the Fourth of July weekend was also poignant, Kundra said. Max Lacewell lost his battle with cancer two years ago on July 4.

The kids are hoping to raise more than $1,000, Kundra said. They heard that another lemonade stand raised that much for the nonprofit and see it as a goal to beat.

The stand is on a neighbor’s property at West Street and Emerald Drive, south of the West Street entrance to Ribfest. Drinks will be sold for $1.

“Look for the big brown canopy,” Kundra said.