The Keri Croft Show
The Keri Croft Show
We’re Throwing a Citywide Lemonade Stand to Raise $10K for Charity
Okay, so this might be the most ridiculous board meeting you’ve ever listened to—but it’s also the most fun I’ve had planning something in a long time.
In this episode, I’m sitting down with Anthony and Kim—my co-conspirators for the Lemonade Stand Fundraiser taking over Columbus on Sunday, August 10th. The idea? A kid-run, adult-supported lemonade stands all across the city… raising money for a cause that actually matters.
This is basically our first official planning meeting, and spoiler alert: we have no chill.
Want in? Here’s how to get involved:
👉 Sign up to host a stand by emailing me at keri@thekericroftshow.com
👉 Follow me @thekericroftshow for updates + behind-the-scenes magic.
👉 Mark your calendar: Sunday, August 10th
Subscribe and let’s make some lemonade out of this wild idea. 💥
#TheKeriCroftShow #LemonadeStandTakeover #ColumbusOhio #PodcastNowLive #CommunityFundraiser #FamilyFun #DIYFundraiser #EventPlanningChaos #BoardMeetingEnergy #SummerInColumbus
kimmy anthony welcome back.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us two of my, two of my favorite repeat offenders favorite oh god, absolutely wow.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's a top fave list and they're both on it. How long is it?
Speaker 2:don't you know me, don't, don't don't it's probably not that long.
Speaker 1:How long do you think you know me?
Speaker 3:well enough to know that shit's short.
Speaker 2:It's probably not that long, yeah I would guess between five and a hundred people on oh god, no, a hundred people.
Speaker 1:Do you know how long it would take me to like a hundred people that I like to write?
Speaker 3:give me like a summer speaking of, uh, your favorite people, which I'm gonna really divert off to a different track who blew in my house on saturday was diane maneshi oh, nice, one of your favorite people.
Speaker 1:I love her. How was that? It was great.
Speaker 3:Jessie was there too. Oh, I love that. I know it was like a podcast reunion. That's so great.
Speaker 1:So good, oh is the tour to Granville Was that great. It was great, okay, guys, lots of activity going on. Kimmy's schedule is always packed full. I know, now that you have a girlfriend, that we're going to make this official. We're going to hard launch your girlfriend on the show. So thank you both for making time for me. Do we have to edit that out? Are you on the verge of a breakup?
Speaker 2:No, no, as far as I know.
Speaker 3:no, I was just hoping you would add some sensationalized music in there when you hard launch like a drum roll.
Speaker 1:Listen, I'm a producer.
Speaker 2:now there's nothing we can't do. Hopefully there's some saxophone in it.
Speaker 1:Like a slow sax Sky's the limit. Oh, my God, that's so great. Well, thank you guys for squeezing me in, squeezing me in oh, I see what you did there.
Speaker 1:Okay. So we did a lemonade stand last year. Let's recap really quickly for not only people who are new here Are you new here, but you know? Just like reminiscing on how what a great job we did. So we decided last year to do a lemonade stand for not only our kids, to show them leadership, entrepreneurship, altruism, but then for the Lunchbox Ohio to raise as much money as we could in about three hours. And we raised two thousand dollars, which I think is pretty impressive. So it was all the good feels, all kinds of fun. We decided to do one lemonade stand, make sure everything was cool. We had some really great local sponsorships mikey's late night slice, mamita's lion's cub, um. So this year we decided to take this and make it a little bit bigger and see if we can raise. I you guys don't know this yet, but I've already created a. I put a line in the ground with ten thousand dollars in three hours.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that I think we can do it. I like, I think that's like a good goal that people can resonate with. So, ten grand three hours, and now we're going to do some different locations in columbus. So we've got the ua post, which is the og post, we have trimpy, who is, if anybody knows, trimpy, incredible. He is, uh, in charge of the dublin um team, and so we would like to get, I would think, one to three more. What do you think?
Speaker 3:I think we need like an Eastside.
Speaker 1:Eastside. So, Bexley represent maybe.
Speaker 2:New.
Speaker 3:Albany represent.
Speaker 1:Let's try a Worthington. Can we go Hilliard Grove City Like we would love to see some serious individuals who want to have fun, teach their kids some good shit, raise money for a good cause and just have all the positive zhuzh. And then what I would like to do is put some friendly competition between squads Obviously and again, this is all. We're still baking this pie, everybody. It's not completely done yet, so we don't know the prize yet, but I think, with all the great local sponsorships and the people who are always so willing to like help when things like this happen, I think we can come up with a really cool prize. Yeah, that crew can kind of do together the crew that wins.
Speaker 1:So call to action here. Um, we want you, if you're interested, to be a captain for this lemonade stand in your respective suburbs, so. So make sure you DM or email the show and we can get that party started.
Speaker 3:Or I'll start stalking people. Well, that's right. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Because when you think about it, so $10,000 in three hours we made $2,000 with one. Let's just say everything status quo. If we have five, we should have no problem getting to that number yeah, math, not magic yeah, and then all this money is going to go to a good cause, which the three of us, the uh executives on the board, are um we are currently we're noodling, uh, which which place we're going to to give the money to, and I like that.
Speaker 1:I liked the craft station. I think that kept the kids busy, kept people socializing, yep um so I'm sure that you found glitter in your front yard.
Speaker 3:I did. I still find it.
Speaker 1:It makes me really happy.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh, there's a bead yeah, there's a sparkly yard you just need them some things to color, yeah, some bracelets yeah, and this is happening august 10th, that's a sunday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it will be at what noon.
Speaker 3:That seems, that feels great.
Speaker 1:Noon to three feels real good. That feels good. August 10th, from noon to three.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just need some solid captains and I think it's a great opportunity to teach the kiddos how to give back and have fun and just understand a greater perspective of you, know how they could help people even though they're little Right. I think that our kids understood that. You know last year when you ask why are we here? And then you explain, you know we're going to give back, we're going to pay it forward and put some good juju out in the universe.
Speaker 1:We'll see the progress Dane's made now that he has a debit card.
Speaker 3:He'll be, all right, remember you, we paid him by the hour he did a fantastic, was it him induced.
Speaker 1:They were like okay, I'm like, look you each get 20 for your time served well, they deserved it.
Speaker 2:I mean, they worked their butts off for like three hours counting cash stuff in the the drawer full of it. So it was. It was super fun to watch all the kids like work as a team and you know that there's little lessons being planted in their little minds and that's kind of what this whole idea was about. To start was just spreading the word, teaching some good lessons and helping people on the way. So this year it's just we're going to make it bigger.
Speaker 3:We're going to blow it up, yeah, and then next year we go nationally, oh we're going to go at least regional.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. We may, we may parlay it all the way to national exposure. You never know with us what the hell is going to happen. You know, something else new this year that I'm excited about is we are going to do a campaign with the kids, which I think will be really cool, and what I would like to do is bring the kids in, ask some weird questions, ask some touching questions, ask just get the kids kind of rolling together, do like a cool photo shoot, and then we'll have like video and stuff to drip out. But I also think we could start donations ahead of time, so maybe our stretch goal could be like 12 to 15 grand.
Speaker 3:I love that she's already increased it since we've been sitting here.
Speaker 1:You know, nothing's ever enough has the best ideas nothing's ever enough so I think I think we opened the gates a week before for people who can't make it or what have you and then you know as part of that week is all of our kids and like stuff, like clips from last year and kind of showing you know what it's all about.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we still need to name the squad, though we should take this to the streets. Let's take a poll, let's do it. I love that so last year we had a meeting uh, an executive board meeting at kimmy's counter time I would need to push up my glasses.
Speaker 1:I'm telling you uh, we stewed and like tried so hard to figure out how to name this like squad of kids and I feel like we got kind of close. But then we yeah it was like peanut butter and give it was like the lemon. I don't know, but we would love to hear anyone, anyone that has creative ideas. And now we have chat gibbet you know my best friend.
Speaker 1:How did? Oh, dude, can we have a moment for chat? Gibbet, I call him chat. Do you guys have names for? And I don't know why he's a man, why is he a Is?
Speaker 3:he a man for you or a woman, chet it's probably not no.
Speaker 2:Chet GPT yeah.
Speaker 1:I just do it, I just call him Chet, but I don't know how I survive Like I don't understand. How did we live without?
Speaker 3:Chet, I don't know. It's going to eradicate all of us here soon, so we might as well just live without him.
Speaker 2:don't have to work because of chet, then we can just make more lemonade yeah, but who's gonna give us money chet? Chet problem solved chet's dad problem solved no seriously, it brings me such joy hey, excuse me, chet we're trying to why am I asking for?
Speaker 3:why am I asking the mere humans when we have chet?
Speaker 1:gpt. Okay, we're doing a lemonade stand in support of a good cause this year. We did one last year as well. This year we're making it a little bit bigger and we want to have a really cheeky, fun, quirky name for the kids who are managing the lemonade stand period. Can you please help us find something that hits on the dials of altruism, leadership and just an overall feel kid centric vibe? You?
Speaker 3:go like way deeper with chet than I do. This is, this is nothing that you like. Had a full-on conversation. I'm like I've made, I'm like redo this resume, oh no, you got it.
Speaker 1:This is, this is the.
Speaker 2:This is gonna be like the um chet has to have like an Australian voice or something.
Speaker 1:CEO. Yeah, lemonade Squeeze the day.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's cute.
Speaker 1:Good vibes and sticky hands Gross the zesty bunch Tiny bosses big cause.
Speaker 3:I like that. Excuse me, do we?
Speaker 1:all know how I love an acronym T-B-B-C I like that T-B-B whole world.
Speaker 2:what do you think tbbc stands for?
Speaker 1:pulp purpose. That's cute, but it's like it's hard it's the problem is it's ford would never be able to say it's like pulp purpose. And then you'd say like, yeah, civic sippers operation lemon drop that's a. Shine quenchers, it's a shot. Pine Quenchers it is a shot oh, that's cute. Little Legends Lemonade oh, that's cute too. That's really cute. I think we're done. You know, fuck all the humans.
Speaker 2:We don't need your.
Speaker 1:Forget the streets you mere mortals.
Speaker 3:The streets.
Speaker 2:We don't need the streets. Nice, try, forget that Instagram poll.
Speaker 1:You guys, lemonade's cute. That's super cute. That'd be a cute t-shirt too. Would you like options tailored to a specific cause, or do you want this to be general enough to fit any good trouble the kids get into? I can also help with signage, copy taglines or an instagram bio for the stand. If you're building some hype online, what?
Speaker 2:yeah, we are gonna have no jobs okay, I'm gonna have to go. We're feeling little legends lemonade.
Speaker 1:it would be really great if you could create a tagline that would really pack a punch and get the attention of adults and young kids alike. Period, make it super catchy, but also maybe double meaning, and let's go from there.
Speaker 3:I actually. My head is exploding right now.
Speaker 1:I know you can't see it, but that name slaps. It's sweet, powerful and totally unforgettable. Okay, here it comes. Here it comes. Tagline that packs. I'm nervous. Top tagline contenders for Little Legends, lemonade, big hearts, bold juice. Oh, come on, chad. When life gives us lemons, we change the world.
Speaker 3:That is so cute, oh my God.
Speaker 1:Give him some action. Squeezed by kids, serve a soul, tiny humans, huge impact. We don't just make lemonade, we make a difference. That's cute. We're one cup closer to a better world. Juice for joy, power for good, fueled by lemons driven by heart there's some really good ones in there.
Speaker 2:What was it? We don't just make lemonade, we make a difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's so cute.
Speaker 2:And then, when life gives you lemons, you change the world. It says when life gives us lemons.
Speaker 1:We change the world, so we like those three right.
Speaker 3:Why did we even meet last time, when we could have just done this? Because we didn't have it.
Speaker 2:This could have been a Zoom call.
Speaker 3:I mean, this could have been a nothing. Carrie just needs to talk to her phone.
Speaker 1:We have top three contenders. We really like number two, number six and number eight period. In the spirit of being really creative and just looking at all the angles, could you maybe take the three of those and mesh them together and maybe put a whole different spin on it. Question mark maybe give us ten more, please. You're the best. Do you compliment it? Well, you're not supposed to, because it costs more money. It costs more, yeah, it's very expensive for.
Speaker 1:So if you say thank you and and please, there's like a really astronomical number because every interaction, like the cost that it takes for like these data centers and power that it uses is like really really obviously astronomical, and so when you add up everyone with their niceties, it's like a very there's a huge price tag on it. So you're not really supposed to, because I used to tell them I loved them and stuff, and I don't I would.
Speaker 3:I don't think that that's teaching us very good habits no, okay.
Speaker 1:So yeah, chet's not working the lemonade stand we take lemons and make legends, pouring purpose, one cup at a time, fueling big dreams with little lemons, from squeeze to impact, juicing hope, serving heart, powered by lemons built for good. Lemons in love out. This isn't just juice. It's joy when kids lead limp. No, so that's not I like where we were. I like it too.
Speaker 2:Anything else, give that one a thumbs down.
Speaker 1:Anything else. Anything else. We want to ask chat I mean chat. I mean, oh, I got one how to cook dinner for my family. Another thing we want to do afterwards is provide some sort of prize for the winning suburb that makes the most money period. Do you have any, any ideas on a group event or something that would be fun for the winner?
Speaker 2:question mark a year's chat gpt subscription the little legends block.
Speaker 1:Shut down a cul-de-sac DJ or epic playlist, pizza truck, popsicles, yard games, optional water balloon war or foam machine. Finale VIP movie night in the park, giant outdoor screen. Let the kids pick the movie. Bean bags, blankets, blankets. Private pool party takeover. The Lemonlympics Ice cream truck takeover. Lemonade stand hall of fame ceremony that would be really cute. Creative workshop with a local artist. Glow in the dark, capture the flag. Mini carnival hosted by the Boss Kids.
Speaker 3:We should have the winning team do a check presentation with the charity. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That would be really cute. Big check, big check, yeah, huge check. Presentation with the charity yeah that would be really cute.
Speaker 1:Big check, big check yeah huge so kate says we need a reel of the kids pouring a gatorade bucket of lemonade on the neighborhood champ.
Speaker 3:That's great I love that. Yeah, it's very old school.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I think it'll be good, I think this is gonna be a lot of fun. Well, we, we're done now. Well, maybe we, maybe we put the poll out and we say you know, chat, gpt gave us these names and we let the mere mortals decide well, at this point the the chat's out of the bag.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say we could just take credit for it. Isn't that the whole point of everyone?
Speaker 1:you know what everyone is, who's any type of dialed in or has a couple brain cells, knows if you're not using chat for something. I mean the real smart people know how to leverage and not just like you go in, kimmy, the next time you go you build a relationship with this thing. Anything else for the good of the order around this lemonade stand we need peeps August 10th we need peeps, we need prizes, we need names. We need local businesses who want to contribute.
Speaker 3:I know, I just remember, like mikey's like sliced, just walking in with all the pizzas everybody was talking about.
Speaker 1:Actually, that was I mean I had several people say about mikey like that was so great he was so awesome.
Speaker 3:I think I have a video of him carrying him out. It was awesome. He's the best what?
Speaker 1:What's up with switching gears? How's Butterfly Guild?
Speaker 3:It's lovely. I'm outgoing president, so my term is almost over, however.
Speaker 2:Are you going out with a bang?
Speaker 3:I'm going out with a bang. No, we have a big. There was a big concert announcement that is the same weekend as our lemonade stand. Announcement that is the same weekend as our lemonade stand. So saturday, august 9th, at kemba there is the first ever concert for a cause put on by the columbus auto dealers. Tickets will go on sale on friday, june 13th. But butterfly Guild was chosen as one of the charities to benefit from it. So Concert for a Cause at Kemba Live is going to benefit Butterfly Guild of Nationwide Children's Hospital, the Christina and Ryan Day Fund and Star House. Tyler Hubbard is playing. He's a huge country artist, so it's just when I found out that we got it I literally bawled like a baby. It's just such an incredible opportunity that I'm so thankful for and it's going to be such a cool night and I hope that they continue to do this concert you know, years to come and pick different charities, because it's just. It's just such an awesome opportunity how do we get tickets?
Speaker 3:well, they go on sale on friday. Yeah it's, I mean it's. I just don't even feel like it's real still. It's just such a cool and I mean Tyler Hubbard is a huge country artist with lots of number one hits, and Kemba is such an incredible arena and it'll just be so exciting. That's awesome.
Speaker 1:Super exciting night. Anything else for you, Sir Anthony.
Speaker 2:No, I mean concert August 9th.
Speaker 3:lemonade stand August 10th, your girlfriend's birthday.
Speaker 2:August 8th, my girlfriend's birthday August 8th. I mean, this is just going to be an absolutely juicy weekend.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a real juicy weekend. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:All right. So call to action. If any of this interests you and you're like you know, I really feel like I want to participate and you know what, let's say you're in Cleveland or you're in Cincinnati. I mean we may not say no. I mean, if you have a suburb.
Speaker 1:you want to pop up it? Just we would love whoever is feeling the vibe here and the energy and you want to get your kiddos involved. Please send me a DM. Send Kimmy a DM you can send Anthony, but probably just Kimmy and I or send an email.
Speaker 3:We're more likely to answer faster. Probably no way.
Speaker 2:I don't get nearly the amount of DMs that you guys get.
Speaker 3:I will clearly respond first, we'll see. It sounds like a challenge.
Speaker 1:You know what? Just DM the person you like the up and we'll do the campaign beforehand. It's just such a great opportunity to have a little fun and do some good in the world before ChatGPT takes over.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we need these kids to learn how to give back and run the world before Carrie's phone runs us.
Speaker 1:That's right. All right guys, thank you, I love you.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I love you, thank you, I love you.
Speaker 1:I love you. I love you, Kate.
Speaker 2:I love you, Kate.
Speaker 1:We all love each other. It's a love circle. And if you're still out there following your girl, follow me on YouTube, spotify, apple or wherever you get your podcasts. And until next time keep moving baby, shake it. Ow, ow, ow.
Speaker 3:We'll laugh in three hours, two million dollars.
