KIDS AND FAMILIES TOUT LEMONADE DAY

As the saying goes, when you have lemons, make lemonade.

So it was Saturday as kids throughout Vacaville participated in the first-annual Lemonade Day event.

Slated to teach young entrepreneurs the basics of business, there were also important lessons in teamwork, relationships, creativity and more.

No less than three lemonade stands were present at Play 4 All Park, where some youths played as others worked their businesses.

Mia Juan, 6, of Fairfield, together with her family, manned a wooden stand stained a rich brown. She and her brothers doled out cold cups of lemonade with wide smiles.

City Manager Aaron Busch passed by with his family and bought several cups of beverages.

“It's very exciting to see our kids out here, how very creative and innovative they are in putting together plans for their future,” he said, “and sharing them with the community.”

Her dad, Domenick, said Mia learned important lessons in “loans you have to pay back, employees you have to pay” and all that goes into a business, including the products needed to create products.

Inside the park, Emberly and Fia Sellers, 11 and 9, served up strawberry and regular lemonade.

They described the project as fun, and had served many through “Em's Lems.”

Across the way at “Lola's Lemonade: So good it'll make you howl,” Lola Storey, 9, shared her reason for the stand.

“I wanted to donate to a nokill animal shelter,” said the youth with nine cats and a dog. “Animals need life and shelters need support.”

With focus and a love for the animals, she emphasized, she finished her stand and all the products, including homemade cookies rolled in lemon sugar.

At the intersection of Leisure Town Road and Commerce Place, a dancing lemon accompanied two youths wearing lemon-yellow socks.

Alexis McCue, 6, dancd her heart out as Alaina Gillard, 11 and Mackenzie McCue, 11, manned “A Little Slice of Lemon.”

Despite the wind, the young women distributed several kinds of lemonade — one named “best tasting — and sold dog cookies and handmade beaded bracelets.

The girls said they enjoyed making things, which resulted in their Lemonade Day participation.

Debbie Egidio with the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce, which spearheaded the event, called it a success.

“It's so engaging and it's at a level that resonates with the kids,” she said. “It's lessons that they're maybe not learning in school and, it's fun.”

Expect more fun next year as Egidio said Lemonade Day will become an annual event.

PHOTOS BY KIMBERLY K. FU, THE REPORTER Alexis McCue, 6; Alaina Gillard, 11; and Mackenzie McCue, 11, work their lemonade stand, “A Little Slice of Lemon,” during Lemonade Day in Vacaville. The young women had a prime spot on Commerce Place at Leisure Town Road.

Mia Juan, 6, of Fairfield (middle) is flanked by Vacaville City Manager Aaron Bush and his family at her lemonade stand at Play 4All Park. She hopes to use any proceeds to but some toys.

PHOTOS BY KIMBERLY K. FU, THE REPORTER Lola Storey, 9, of Vacaville loves animals, especially wolves. Thus the motto of her lemonade stand: “Lola's Lemonade — So good it will make you howl!” Proceeds from her Lemonade Day event will go to a no-kill animal shelter to continue with their good works.

Sisters Fia and Emberly Sellers of Vacaville, 9and 11respectively, offer two kinds of lemonade from their stand, “Em's Lems.”

KIMBERLY K. FU, THE REPORTER An “Appreciation Tree” at Solano Family & Children's Services.in Fairfield filled with notes of gratefulness for Solano's hardworking child care providers.