An Oil City girl and three of her friends raised $2,460 for troops overseas with funds from a lemonade and treat stand they operated for three days last month.
Sammie Bartlett, 9, was inspired to collect money for troops because her father and the father of one of her friends have served in Iraq. Her friends Katie Luxbacher, Lilly Shiley and Corabel Shiley joined the effort.
“At first I though $50 would be the coolest thing ever,” said Bartlett. “Then we started going up and down the street and all of a sudden people started handing me money. It just started skyrocketing.”
“We were happy we made that much money so we could help our troops overseas and it was really exciting for us,” said Corabel Shiley, who is 11.
The girls said what they did was very important.
“It is really nice to help the soldiers overseas so they can keep on fighting,” said Luxbacher, who is 9.
The girls found the community’s response was extremely generous.
“We saw how much we pulled our community together,” Bartlett said.
The girls are planning to save the money they have left over and send more care packages for Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are also deciding if they want to target other in-need groups.
“What we agreed on is making this a tradition and doing this each year. Next year we were thinking about doing kids in hospitals,” said Bartlett.
