A sour story has a sweet ending in suburban Naperville after the community came together to help a little girl whose lemonade stand was robbed late last month.
According to Naperville police, 11-year-old Alizay Kashif set up a lemonade stand on June 28 to raise money for the charity Feeding America when a group of teens pulled up in a vehicle. Police say that four teen girls were in a vehicle that pulled up to the stand, and two of them got out of the car. While one of the girls asked Kashif how much the lemonade cost, the other grabbed a jar from the stand and fled the scene with $12, police said.
Naperville police didn’t learn of the theft until July 9, but once they did, that jumped into action, raising $170 for Kashif’s cause.
“I feel really good,” she said. “I think it’s amazing how everybody chipped in, and I think none of it really would have happened unless that (theft) happened. Something good came out of something bad.”
With additional funds raised from members of the community, Kashif will have the opportunity to present over $350 in donations to Feeding America.
“It was a common feeling that we should do more for the family,” Naperville Police Sergeant Brad Marsh said. “The theft wasn’t all that great, but the impact was big on a kid just having a lemonade stand. We felt like we needed to do something for her.”
The Kashif family plans to do something nice for the officers who turned a sad situation into a happy ending, and they’re thankful that the community was willing to come together after the theft.
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“We are so privileged to raise our kids in this community where everyone was there for them,” Kashif’s mother Rabia said. “We are immigrants and our kids believe in charity, so this is great.”
