Springfield, Virginia — Johnny Karlinchak may only be eight, but despite his age, he has given an outstanding example of how to pay it forward by starting a lemonade stand to help his neighbors with their damaged house.
The Myers family suffered a huge loss recently when a 60-foot oak tree fell on their house. Johnny, no stranger to loss himself, remembered the way his neighbors rose up to support his family after his six-year-old sister was killed in a car accident, reports The Washington Post . After his sister, Kelly, died four years ago, his neighbors raised $38,000 for a playground in her name.
Immediately after seeing the massive tree on Elissa Myers’ home, Johnny rushed to his piggy bank and gathered up his life savings, a total of five quarters, rushing them over to the Myers house.
Elissa later stated, according to The New York Daily News , that while she lost many things in the storm that she didn’t cry about, the “overwhelming kindness of Johnny did.”
But he did much more than simply giving Mrs. Myers $1.25. He appeared about an hour later on the sidewalk with a lemonade stand, sporting a sign that read, “Mrs. Myers building fund.” With the goal of $500 on the plate (the Myers’ insurance deductible for the $200,000 in damage to their home), Johnny Karlinchak may have been a bit disappointed by his first day’s earnings of $21.
He was not deterred though, and a few days later he made $108. Before too long, the 8-year-old boy was able to raise surpass his $500 goal, but still he continued to raise money for the Myers family, including their dog, who Johnny hopes to buy a new bed for, according to WTOP.
And it’s obvious that Johnny’s neighbors are getting into the giving spirit, thanks to the 8-year-old Springfield boy. Neighbor Marian McLaughlan told The New York Daily News that she purposefully overpaid for her treats, saying:
“I gave more than enough for my lemonade and two cookies. The other day I did the same…this is a wonderful neighborhood.”
Do you think that people like Johnny Karlinchak are becoming more and more rare? What would it take for you to raise money for a friend or neighbor in need?
[Images courtesy of The New York Daily News ]
