11-year-old’s lemonade stand to raise money for college shut down by health officials
An 11-year-old who set up an enterprising lemonade stand with hopes of raising money for college in the near future got her dreams dashed by Illinois health officials.
Citing concerns that Hayli Martenez’s home in Kankanee doesn’t have running water, since her mother is $200 behind on her bill, officials shut down her business because of health concerns, CBS 2 reports.
But Martenez and her mother argues that she set up ‘HayliBug Lemonadez’ and sold refreshing drinks to customers from donated bottles of spring water.
While health officials said they might have let them slide selling the lemonade, unfortunately, the family “crossed a line” when they took things further and started using fruit and veggies to sell smoothies.
Iva, the girl’s mother, said she and her daughter have been using bottled water to drink and bathe since their water has been shut off.
Iva said she was shocked July 20, when health officials showed up to shut her daughter’s lemonade stand down.
“Are you serious? Are you really serious that we have to stop making lemonade?” she told the outlet.
—Video of Will Smith going crazy for little boys lemonade business will make your day—
“I really want to go back to selling lemonade,” Hayli said.
“That was my dream and I’ve had a lot of fun selling it.”
But in order to get the stand back up and running, health officials said the family would need to get up to date on their water bill and purchase a permit.
Neighbors are reportedly planning to throw a fundraiser to raise money for the family.
