Lemonade wars raise funds for close-to-home cause

Conway’s fourth grade summer school just wrapped up their lemonade wars based off the book “Lemonade Wars” by Jaqueline Davies.

“We have been reading the book and thought it would be fun to incorporate into our summer school lessons,” explained Lora Owens-Loomis. “We talked about ways students could start a business, how to analyze profits and attract customers, how to budget and estimate value of things, right along with the book.”



The two classes of Christi Miller-Williams and Lora Owens-Loomis set up selling lemonade down in the field beyond the school by the first Baptist church of Conway. They set out with the mission of donating the funds raised to St. Jude honoring students Ava Deckard and Morgan Leer who each have personally been touched by childhood cancer, and also using it for new playground balls.

“The lemonade war between the two classes was a fun way to see who could raise the most money, knowing it was going to a good cause,” Owens-Loomis added. “A lot of the kids at the school were kind of affected by the diagnosis of two of our students as well, because these kids all know each other. So it was actually our stunts idea when we talked about the money to donate part of that to St. Jude.”

“In the book, the brother and sister get into a typical sibling fight and that’s where the war is created from. So in the end they talk about how it was a silly fight,” said Christi Miller-Williams. “So there was emotional pieces to it as well as far as how to handle conflict with our peers and problem solving. We also took 26 kids to Price Cutter in Conway and for the math portion and budgeting they got to look around the store and see what that experience was like.”

Dozens stopped to donate and pick up refreshing glasses of lemonade prepared by the students.

“It was a great experience to teach the kids about giving back to others, and how to approach the public. They’re eight, nine, ten years old and it was a good opportunity to have them learn those skills as well, outside of an academic setting.”