Local 11-Year-Old Hosting Lemonade Stand Fundraiser For The Park Slope Library
You certainly don’t have to be an adult to love your library, and 11-year-old neighbor Laura Sternbach is certainly proving that. A member of the Friends of Park Slope Library since about May, the incoming 6th grader has organized her first fundraiser for the group — a bake sale that she’s hosting at the library (431 6th Ave) this Saturday, July 26 from 11am to 3pm.
“I helped out with Bike the Branches and it was really fun to help out with the stamping and other little jobs,” Laura says. “I thought that if I have another fundraiser it would help the library while also being fun.”
So she weighed out her options, which wasn’t too tough, because, she says, “B
eing a kid we have two types of sales — stoop sales and lemonade sales.” And availability to the product won out.“I don’t have enough junk for a stoop sale so the clear choice was lemonade,” she explains. “But we are still going to be selling books at Saturday’s lemonade sale.”The books available for purchase will be for kids, cookies will be $1 each, and Laura will be offering two sizes of lemonade: a kid size for 50 cents, and an adult size for $1. And be sure to talk recipes when you stop by.
“I have a tip for kids making lemonade out of lemons,” she says. “You have to take the lemons so one-third is lemon juice, then put in the water and add sugar.”But it’s not just lemonade that Laura knows a thing or two about. The library fan is, of course, a big reader, who says reading can give you some help in life in a fun way.
“Sometimes reading makes you think about what’s going on in the world,” she says. “It also offers a world for you to get away into. Not a lot of people though know how great it is to read; everyone should.”
Though she notes that “you’re always reading even if you don’t know it,” we asked her to share some of the things she’s read that were most memorable. Here are Laura’s top five summer book recommendations:
• I just finished the series of The Mother-Daughter Book Club and I enjoyed that.
• I’ve always enjoyed the Warriors cat series, but you need to read it in baby steps — it has like 48 books.
• I liked Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series number two the best, but one is okay too.
• Harry Potter was a great book.
• My dad pushes me to read young adult books and his young adult books are pretty much sci-fi/fantasy, so the books he gives me I pretty much enjoy. I’m just going to throw Ender’s Game in there for advanced readers.
Laura clearly knows how important a resource our library is, and tells us the money from her fundraiser will be used to help support library programs. It’s hard not to be impressed with all the work she’s putting into this sale — particularly on her summer break from school — but she says she finds it valuable to be a part of the Friends group.
“I think it’s important to be able to tell the library things that kids might like to improve the library.”
If you know a kid who feels the same way, let them know they can get involved, anytime.
“They can talk to the children’s librarian at the Park Slope branch,” she says.
Image via Friends of Park Slope Library
