When war hands you lemons, what do you make?

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: May 30, 2008

LAKE MONTICELLO

While most of Middle America yanked ivy out of the yard or grilled brats to go with the potato salad, 6-year-old Olivia Heide sold cookies, lemonade and American flag pins outside a gas station.

She didn’t do it for profit, although she surely received one. She didn’t do it for Barbie or Webkinz or cool clothes. She did it for kids who have lost their mommies and daddies in war, and wound up with a couple of Ben Franklins for the Naval Special Warfare Foundation, which supports families of fallen Navy SEALs.

“She came up with the idea of having a lemonade stand and raising money and I really didn’t follow up on it,” said Rob Heide, Olivia’s dad. “On Monday she said, ‘Daddy, are we going to do that lemonade stand?’ and we had to do some scrambling.”

Memorial’s meaning

Olivia’s idea sprang from one of those important life lessons parents are always trying to teach. In this case, the lesson was the how, the why and the importance of Memorial Day.

Dad started with Union families mourning their lost, its status as a holiday and metamorphosis into a three-day cookout.

“Being prior military, I was making sure my daughter understood what it was all about,” said Daddy Heide, who served eight years in the Navy Reserve. He also served with the Albemarle County Police Department before joining the enforcement arm of the county’s community development department.

“She’s 6, so she didn’t really care about the history. What she did understand was that there were kids who didn’t have mommies and daddies anymore,” Dad explained. “She brought up the lemonade stand idea and I let it drop, figuring she would too.”

He was wrong.

A lemonade stand was born

“After the talk, we really couldn’t tell a 6-year-old, ‘No, you can’t do something to help others,’ so we contacted the Citgo gas station, The Market at Clifton Plaza. They said we could set up in their parking lot,” Dad said.

Location doesn’t mean much without inventory, so Dad picked up some American flag pins to go with the snacks. His neighbor, local documentary filmmaker Scott Mactavish, donated some DVDs of his film “God and Country,” which includes the story of Charlottesville’s Bradley Arms, who was killed in combat in Iraq.

With cookies and lemonade going for a small donation and flag pins and DVDs for larger donations, the Heide family fundraiser netted more than $200.

“We were out there from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and pretty much gave it up when we ran out of shade,” Dad laughed. “People were really generous. They made one 6-year-old very happy.”