LEMONS TEACH LIFE LESSONS It started with a five year old’s desire to do “something different” on Labor Day. Jack Zerbe
“We learned that in Japan and in Canada, most liver transplants in children are done with a living donor. I went through eight weeks of testing and psychological evaluations and all sorts of meetings with my parents, with my husband, Jordan, with a lot of people. I was a match. So when she was six months old, Beatrice had a liver transplant and I was her donor. It was a 12-hour surgery, in side-by-side operating rooms at Cincinnati Children’s. Ever since then, we felt incredibly indebted to the hospital.”
asked his mom, Amanda, if they could have a lemonade stand. She reached out to her good friend, Hillary Weidner, to see if she and her daughters wanted to join in. “Our friends, the Zerbes, have three boys the same age as our three girls and they are really close friends. Amanda said, ‘Let’s have a lemonade stand this summer. Let’s get out of the pool, let’s do something else.’ And we said we would love it. So we had a lemonade stand. We raised $148 in 45 minutes. It was very casual and the kids got a kick out of it.When we asked the kids where they wanted to donate the money they made, they said, “Let’s donate to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.” That made it really special to us.” Hillary explained.
Hillary and Amanda wanted the children’s act of kindness to be memorable, so Hillary called the hospital and asked if they could bring the children to the hospital and present them with a giant check. Cincinnati Children’s happily agreed. “We went to the hospital with all six of our kids and did this check presentation. Then we went to the park, and let the kids play. Amanda and I were just chatting, and I said, ‘Let’s take this picture and post it on social media. And I’m going to ask if anybody wants to match the kids’ $148 donation, and maybe we’ll make it $296 instead.’ And so that’s what we decided to do. So we both posted,
While young children wanting to donate rather than use the money for themselves is noteworthy, for Hillary, it had special meaning. “Our oldest daughter, Beatrice, was born with a very rare liver disease. She was put on the waiting list for a liver transplant when she was ten weeks old. We carried around the pager and waited for our call while she was getting sicker and sicker.
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