Vivienne Harr started a roadside lemonade stand on 25 June 2012. Her goal was to raise $100,000 for groups working to fight slavery. Because compassion is not compassion without action, i wanted to do something,.
The image, titled “Brothers Carrying Stone, Nepal”, showed two young boys forced to carry heavy granite slabs with straps around their foreheads. “I thought slavery ended with Abraham Lincoln,” Harr wrote on the Make a Stand website. An eight-year-old girl from Fairfax, California, turned a classic childhood activity into a determined fundraising campaign after one photograph showed her the reality of modern child slavery. She reached that target in less than six months, but she refused to stop. Instead, she kept the stand open every day for a full year. Her campaign began after she saw a photograph by documentary photographer Lisa Kristine. The picture deeply affected Harr. Until then, she had believed forced labor was a thing of the past. “I was wrong about that. I learned that slavery is everywhere and even here in America. Wanting to help, Harr built a small wooden stand in a local park in her hometown of Fairfax, in Marin County, California.
Instead of setting a price for each cup, she asked customers to “pay what is in your heart”.
In December 2012, her campaign received major public attention when then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg invited her to bring her lemonade stand to Times Square. On her 173rd straight day of selling lemonade, Harr officially passed her $100,000 goal. Total donations reached $101,320. I said, ‘Then I’m not done.'” Harr continued running the stand for 365 straight days. The product was later sold in more than 150 grocery stores. In November 2013, Twitter invited nine-year-old Harr to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange during the company’s initial public offering. In November 2017, Japan’s First Lady, Akie Abe, invited Harr to co-host the World’s Children’s Summit in Japan.
Because we’re coming, i hope these kids can hold on to hope,.
“My parents said, ‘Honey, you did it! “I said, ‘Is child slavery done? They said ‘No. It is the child in slavery who doesn’t give up hope,” Harr said.
The money went to Not For Sale, a California-based nonprofit that works to fight child slavery and human trafficking around the world. Even after reaching the goal she had set, Harr did not want the campaign to end. You’re done!'” Harr recalled in an interview with the My Hero Project. She made fresh lemonade every morning and did not miss a day. On the 366th day of the campaign, the family turned the project into a bottled organic drink business called Make a Stand Lemon-aid. It kept the original charitable goal by giving part of its proceeds to charities that fight human trafficking. The campaign’s growing public profile brought more international attention. The company highlighted her work as an example of activism driven by social media. Points of Light, a nonprofit group that recognizes volunteer service, later gave Harr the Presidential Points of Light Award. She became the youngest person to receive the award in the organization’s history. In her interview with the My Hero Project, Harr explained what kept her going during the year-long campaign. “My hero? “Think about this. You have to work all day, and you’re hurt, and you can’t leave. But you hold on to hope. And you keep going. That’s a hero to me. We’re coming.”