Apopka boys honored for donating lemonade stand profits

Youths raised hundreds of dollars to assist others in ailing health

Apopka officials have honored two boys who squeezed lemons to help others.

Christian Redmon, 8, and Anthony Torres, 9, were recognized by the Apopka City Council last week for giving away proceeds from their summer lemonade stands.

Christian gave his profits to help a family friend, 4-year-old Silas Cipollone, who is fighting a rare cancer.

Anthony raised $800 for a ministry that feeds homeless people at First Baptist Church of Apopka. He also helped serve the meals.

“We need more young people like this out there helping our community out,” said Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson, who presented the boys with “Super Hero Student” certificates for their selflessness. “It’s really amazing...the lemonade was pretty good, too.”

Though nearly the same age, the boys hadn’t met one another before the council meeting.

“My heart is so full,” said Dawn Redmon, Christian’s mother. “I’m so proud of my son and my community.”

Tania Rosario, Anthony’s mother, also praised her son.

“What kid thinks of others at this age?” she asked.

Both moms said their sons had pestered them for a while to open lemonade stands, but both grew more insistent when they thought they could help others.

Dawn Redmon said her son wanted to aid Silas’ family as the youngster was undergoing treatment for alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that forms in soft tissue and is mostly found in children.

Redmond, who is close with Silas’ mother, was touched by her son’s empathy and her friend’s struggles. She contacted The Home Depot in Apopka, hoping for a discount on materials for a lemonade stand. Instead, store employees built one and donated it to Christian.

Rosario said a work associate built Anthony’s lemonade stand, a lemonade banner and lemon-yellow T-shirts for the boy and his helpers.

“It just took off,” she said of the lemonade stand her son set up in front of their home on Wekiva Springs Road.

“People heard about what Anthony was doing,” she said. “Some gave $20 for a lemonade.”