x
Breaking News
More () »

Eden Prairie neighborhood commemorates 9/11 in the sweetest way for the 18th time

In an Eden Prairie neighborhood, a group of kids wanted to do their part to remember Sept. 11.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. - Everyone reacted to the tragedies of Sept. 11 in her or his own way.

Blood donations, military enlistments and flags being flown as far as the eye could see.

But in an Eden Prairie neighborhood, a group of kids wanted to do their part, too.

“We had a plate of cookies and a jug of lemonade and we raised $1,100,” Sue Donkersgoed explained of that very first 9/11 fundraiser cookie and lemonade stand in her neighborhood.

Yes, a handful kids no older than 10 sold cookies and lemonade to anyone who would buy and then gave all that money back to a 9/11 assistance fund. It is and was a cute story, sure, but multiply that now 18 times.

“It is year 18 (of the fundraiser stand) because we made a promise and our promise was to never forget,” Donkersgoed explained Tuesday.

Eighteen lemonade stands.

The original kids who started it are now in their mid-20s and they trained other kids to take it over, but those kids are now teenagers. So a third group of little ones is now running the one-day business on this Sept. 11.

To date they have all raised nearly $27,000.

Every penny going to a charity that has been touched by 9/11 in some way.

So as the flags went up today, declaring the stand would open again tonight, we had to ask why a neighborhood thousands of miles away from any of those 9/11 sites would do this year after year.

“It touched me, it touched my son, it touched my neighbors, it touched the woman down the street whose husband was in one of towers when it went down and she didn't know if he was alive," Donkersgoed said. "I think there needs to be more richness and this can't be forgotten."

When thousands of cookies are sold tonight, another group that hasn't forgotten will be added to the list of benefactors.

“I'm real fortunate they have chosen a nonprofit I founded for military families as being the recipient of their proceeds.”

Bill Hottell, a veteran of the Vietnam War, will take the money in gratitude for his camp, of the same name.

“Camp Gratitude is a program, not a place, with a primary mission of saying thank you to our military families for all the sacrifices the entire family has made for us so we can enjoy freedoms,” Hottell said.

All the cookies and lemonade sold will add up to a few thousand dollars, which will pave the way for at least three families to get to Camp Gratitude to hold space with other military families and get any counseling they need to manage the stresses of life after war or deployment.

To learn more about Camp Gratitude, click here.

Before You Leave, Check This Out