THE LEMONADE WARS

Earlier this year, Blakely’s fourth grade teacher, April Zapata, alongside her P.E. Coach shared some observations they had about Blakely with her mother. Shortly after, she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes after her mother recognized the symptoms of T1D shared by her teachers. Blakley has been adjusting to her new lifestyle very well, has wonderful support from her parents and teacher by sharing books with the class and type 1 diabetes so they can better understand why her diet has changed, and why she must see the nurse so often.

At the time, April’s class was reading the book, The Lemonade War, which is a story about two siblings that “go to war" to see who can sell the most lemonade in the week before they return to school. Winner takes all the profits from both lemonade stands. This gave April the idea of having her students do the same since they are learning about income, expenses, and profit in their math lessons as well. Ms. Zapata’s class formed four groups and allowed the students to determine which organization they wanted to make money for.

Blakely’s group chose The Children’s Diabetes Foundation (CDF), benefiting the Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes Each group was tasked with marketing, organizing, and selling their lemonade. The group with the greatest profit would earn all the profits from all four lemonade stands and would donate to their selected organization. Blakely did a phenomenal job of marketing and appealing to her customers with a "special jolly rancher treat" in their lemonade. They had matching shirts and all! Their team came out on top with the greatest profit and received all the profits to donate to CDF.

All in all, the kids learned not only about calculating profit, but also about advertising, working together, good sportsmanship, and helping others. The Lemonade Wars, on behalf of Plum Creek Elementary in Lockhart, Texas donated $369.29 to the Children’s Diabetes Foundation to help other type 1 kids.

Congratulations to Blakely for her ingenuity, team building, and generally being an awesome kid! We are so proud of you and how type 1 strong you are!