Quarters for Africa
Waupun girl collects money to help people in need
WAUPUN, Wis.— For Jaelle Weinberger, giving to less fortunate people has become commonplace. The 5-year-old from Waupun has learned the practice from her mother, Sarah.
“She and I have donated toys to collection boxes at Walgreens at Christmas since she was 2. We also put together Operation Christmas boxes for children in third-world countries. We look for opportunities to help good causes each year” Sarah said.
It came as no surprise to Sarah when Jaelle approached her with an idea, to raise money for an African boy, named Bamba, Jaelle learned about in vacation bible school at Edgewood Community Church in Waupun.
Bamba, they learned, suffered from hunger, due to lack of funding, and food in his home country of Zimbabwe.
“At one point, she mentioned we could open a café and send the money to Bamba. Obviously, that’s not easily done, so I didn’t take that very seriously.” Sarah said.
Days passed but Jaelle didn’t forget about Bamba and his family, and how badly they needed help, The Reporter Media reported.
“I’m not sure what really sprang her to action.” Sarah said. “She had a friend over one day, and afterward, when we were getting ready for bed— out of the blue—she suggested the idea of having a lemonade stand and donating the money. It was such a simple, sweet, and selfless request; I just knew I had to make it happen.”
Still thinking of opening a café to raise the money, Jaelle named the lemonade stand Donation Café.
The whole idea of helping people in Africa came from Diane Knowlton, the Children’s Ministry Director at Edgewood Community Church in Waupun.
More than 150 kids, aged 3 to 12, watched a video on each of the four days of the vacation bible school program about a child in need in Africa.
“We encouraged the kids to go home and come up with ways to raise money for The Children’s Hunger Fund, who partnered with the bible school curriculum we were using,” Knowlton said. The kids were told that it only cost 25 cents to provide a meal.
“That amount made it very tangible for the kids to understand they could help others, with a small amount of money. We ended up raising enough for over 4000 meals,” Knowlton said. Four times the goal they set out for. Jaelle refused to stop thinking about the people of Africa after her vacation bible school came to a close.
Almost two months later, she was sitting behind a table on a corner close to her house in Waupun, asking people passing by if they would like a cookie or lemonade.
After they stopped, she would tell them that a donation to help the hungry people in Africa was needed in order to get the treats, which also included dog treats for anyone with pets.
“Twenty-five cents gets one meal, and a dollar gets four meals for the people of Africa,” she would explain. “It was cool to see how some people would stop out for the lemonade, unaware of the charity part of it, and after Jaelle let them know how many meals they bought, they would donate a couple extra dollars,” said Sarah.
After two hours, Jaelle had raised $63.50. Enough to provide 254 meals.
The charity didn’t stop there though. “We got a money order from the bank and the teller waived the usual fee since it was for a good cause,” said Sarah.
Jaelle is already planning for her next fundraising booth.
“I’m going to add carrots next time, so people that want a healthy snack have something to get,” she said.