A group of kids are spending part of their summer selling homemade lemonade in the hopes of funding a desired basketball court in the north end of the Halifax peninsula.
“It’s fun. I like it. You get to walk around and make some new friends sometimes,” Maziah Clayton-Hart, 10, said on Gottingen Street near Cunard Street on Wednesday.
He and his business partners spent the afternoon going door-to-door in the area with their makeshift lemonade stand, a blue-coloured cooler on wheels, offering the beverage for $1 per cup.
The business is called Fruit Burst Lemonade. It was developed as part of a program by Hope Blooms, whose mission statement on its website reads: “To empower at-risk youth to be actively engaged in building environments that directly impact the social determinants of health in their communities.”
The kids created the logo and the lemonade from scratch, and they decided which community project the money is directed to, said staff member Bocar Wade, who accompanied the kids on their travels.
“Lots of kids like playing basketball around here,” said 10-year-old Tayemar Mintis.
The hope, said the scooter-equipped entrepreneur, is to see a basketball court erected in or near the site of the former St. Patrick’s-Alexandra School, though there are many details to work out.
They said they originally sold lemonade in front of a library but chose to make it a roving affair in the hopes of earning more money.
Adrius Stephenson, 11, said the day didn’t prove to be particularly lucrative due to rainy weather, but a previous day — a decidedly sunnier one — netted them $50 in one hour.
Since launching about three weeks ago, they’ve raised about $100 so far, according to Wade.
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