JACKSON, Mich. — Faith Murdock, an 8-year-old Jackson resident, is raising money for the families of Kole Sova, Richie Mays Jr. and Dawson Brown, the men who passed away at the Faster Horses festival from carbon monoxide poisoning.
Her lemonade stand in front of her family home has raised more than $900 in a matter of four days.
Faith said, when she saw the news about the men, she wanted to help.
“I always go to my grandma’s house to watch the news and, when I heard about it, I was kind of sad,” Faith said.
She thought of the time her parents saw a homeless man and bought him food from McDonalds.
“I asked my parents why they did it and they said, ‘Because a good deed starts a chain reaction,'” she said.
“She made a Facebook,” her mother, Kayla, said. “She went to comment on my post, and she accidentally commented in the group, and it got very big. I woke up to like 50 messages of people like, ‘I want to help your lemonade stand.' I’m like, ‘Oh no, did I make a status about a lemonade stand in my sleep?’ Then I saw the status and I was just so proud.”
Kayla and Faith opened Faith’s Heavenly Lemonade Stand outside their home Wednesday. They collected $180 in donations. Faith also donated to the cause with the money she had been saving for a skateboard. The community found out.
“People have been buying her skateboards, and she has about six now I think,” Kayla said.
It started with lemonade, but by the last day, Sunday, they were selling hot dogs, chips, soda, "and also we are selling bumper stickers and we’re selling shirts,” Faith said.
Kayla said they’ve had customers who traveled all the way from Grand Rapids to donate $250. And that wasn’t the only donor from out of the area.
“We had some lady from Texas donate $100 to go and buy chips and pop and more lemonade and stuff like that for the stand itself so we could keep running through the weekend,” Kayla added.
By Saturday, the duo had collected nearly $900, and said they have quite a bit more to count from Sunday to add to that total.
The money will be split between the three victims' families. Next weekend, Kayla and Faith plan to continue selling the shirts and bumper stickers at their stand.
If you would like to donate directly to the cause, there is a GoFundMe.
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