11-year-old girl sees that the family didn't have money for her father's headstone, sets up a lemonade stand and raises almost $3,000 with the help of the community.

11-year-old girl sees that the family didn’t have money for her father’s headstone, sets up a lemonade stand and raises almost $3,000 with the help of the community.

Written by Romário Pereira de Carvalho

Published on 19/06/2026 at 08:29

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Kaylee Hernandez mobilized residents of Lubbock, Texas, during Lemonade Day, raised almost $3,000 with a lemonade stand, and managed to buy a headstone for her father, who died in 2024

Kaylee Hernandez, an 11-year-old girl, raised almost $3,000 selling lemonade in Lubbock, Texas, to buy a headstone for her father, Ricky, who died of throat cancer in June 2024, at the age of 51. The family wanted a special tribute but didn’t have the money to pay for it. People published this case in May 2026.

11-year-old girl raises amount selling lemonade and helps the family — Kaylee Hernandez.
Credit: KCBD NewsChannel 11

Lemonade sale became a tribute to her father

The idea came up over the weekend during Lemonade Day, an initiative that encourages children to set up and run lemonade stands.

Kaylee decided to turn the activity into a way to honor her father, almost two years after his death.

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Community lined up before the stand opened

The sale mobilized local residents. According to Kaylee, many people showed up to buy lemonade, and there was a line even before she started serving. Among the customers were people who knew Ricky.

She mentioned that one of the first buyers had worked with her father. Kaylee recalled that on some days, she accompanied Ricky to work and met people from his professional circle.

At KCBD, the girl thanked the community for their support. She said she was surprised by the movement and stated that it was nice to see people showing affection for her and her father.

11-year-old girl raises money selling lemonade and helps the family — Image: Reproduction / Youtube

The girl’s action paid off: Almost $3,000 was enough for the headstone

The fundraising reached almost $3,000, an amount sufficient for the purchase of the headstone. On Monday, May 4, Kaylee and the family managed to buy the item at the Resthaven funeral home, according to KCBD.

The informed forecast is that the headstone will arrive in six to nine weeks. For the family, the purchase represents the replacement of the improvised marker that currently identifies Ricky’s grave.

In an interview with KLBK, Kaylee said she smiled all day during the sale but ended up tired. She told her mother that her feet were hurting after the intense movement at the stand.

“My face was smiling all day; I was busy,” she said
to KLBK, another local station. “In the end, I said: ‘Mom, my feet are hurting.’“

Lemonade Day encourages children to be entrepreneurs

Lemonade Day was founded by Lisa and Michael Holthouse in 2007. The initiative teaches children from kindergarten to eighth grade how to set up and manage a lemonade stand.

According to the project’s website, participants have already raised over $11 million in profit and donated more than $3 million to charities.

Before the event, Kaylee described Ricky as a present father, who went to school with her and participated in activities like “Donuts with Dad.” Seeing the proximity of Lemonade Day, she decided to use the date to help the family.

This article was prepared based on information from KCBD, KLBK, PEOPLE, and the Lemonade Day website, with data, numbers, and statements preserved as per the consulted material.

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11-year-old girl sees that the family didn’t have money for her father’s headstone, sets up a lemonade stand and raises almost $3,000 with the help of the community.

Kaylee Hernandez mobilized residents of Lubbock, Texas, during Lemonade Day, raised almost $3,000 with a lemonade stand, and managed to buy a headstone for her father, who died in 2024

Lemonade sale became a tribute to her father

Community lined up before the stand opened

The girl’s action paid off: Almost $3,000 was enough for the headstone

Lemonade Day encourages children to be entrepreneurs

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11-year-old girl sees that the family didn’t have money for her father’s headstone, sets up a lemonade stand and raises almost $3,000 with the help of the community.

Kaylee Hernandez mobilized residents of Lubbock, Texas, during Lemonade Day, raised almost $3,000 with a lemonade stand, and managed to buy a headstone for her father, who died in 2024

Lemonade sale became a tribute to her father

Community lined up before the stand opened

The girl’s action paid off: Almost $3,000 was enough for the headstone

Lemonade Day encourages children to be entrepreneurs

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Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

He transformed an abandoned plastic water tank into an underground house in the “hobbit hole” style, using only repurposed pallet wood, without heavy machinery or expensive labor.

China transforms desert-devastated area into the world’s largest artificial forest, planting trees for 60 years, blocking sand that reached Beijing, and creating a “green lung” of 92,000 hectares in a region once considered lost.

Toyota launches “family hybrid van” with 7 or 8 seats, 1.8 hybrid engine, fuel consumption of up to 23.8 km/l, and a price equivalent to about R$ 104,000 without taxes, below the Tiggo 8 Pro Plug-in Hybrid sold in Brazil: meet the Noah Hybrid 2026 in Japan.

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