Memorial Day stand gave and received

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: June 20, 2008

LAKE MONTICELLO

Olivia Heide’s Memorial Day lemonade stand started as a lesson in caring and kindness but wound up a primer on gratitude and appreciation.

In the spirit of the holiday, Olivia ran the stand and gave her profits to charity and the charities gave right back, providing some simple lessons in giving and receiving.

Newton’s Law of Giving: For every positive action, there’s an equally positive reaction.

The Heide lemonade stand hit a chord with friends and neighbors, including documentary filmmaker Scott Mactavish, who donated copies of his film “God and Country” for sale at the stand.

“We took in $200 from the lemonade stand but it didn’t end with the lemonade stand,” said Olivia’s father, Rob Heide. “Money kept coming in and we wound up with about $500. That’s a lot more than we anticipated and it gave us enough to make more than one contribution.”

Kermit the Frog’s Cause-Effect Postulate: A small stone makes big waves in a small pond.

The Heides gave their money to two groups: the Naval Special Warfare Foundation, which serves deployed Navy SEALs and their families, and the United Warrior Survivors Foundation, which serves the families of slain SEALs.

“We wanted to make an impact with the donation and we figured that a smaller organization would appreciate a small donation more,” he said. “We didn’t really expect how much they appreciated it.”

Uncle Vito’s Collection Hypothesis: Everyone’s happy when you pay it back with interest.

The United Warriors flew more than 100 flags over their Iraq compound, flags that were then sent to families of the fallen. The foundation chairman, who is on active duty, consulted with board members and they agreed to send Olivia a flag as a thank you. The special warfare foundation supporters made Olivia and family honored guests at its upcoming conference.

“[The United Warriors] included a hand-written note with the flag that talked about Olivia ‘changing the world one glass of lemonade at a time’ and the special warfare foundation invited her and us to the East Coast SEAL Team Reunion in July” at Little Creek Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, Mr. Heide said. “She’s going to be a special guest at their Demo Day, where the SEALs demonstrate their training. That’s usually reserved for family and friends.”

The Spin Doctor Supposition: Good deeds make good impressions.

The response has made the Heide family feel good about raising money and even better about the people to whom they gave it.

“It think it says a lot about the organizations — and the military — that they would go through all of this for us just for a few hundred dollars from a lemonade stand,” Mr. Heide said. “I think it says a lot about their character the way they responded to a 6-year-old.”