Lemonade sales bring hope to PC
Summer yard sales, festivals and trade days are often punctuated by a common staple: lemonade stands. So what makes Katie Smith’s lemonade sale so special? Perhaps it’s that she’s continued it every year for six years since age 10 – or maybe its because she gives all of the proceeds back to the community.
Most people know Smith’s story, but she and Phil Campbell High School Principal Gary Odom want to make sure people remember the reason it all started and keep that spirit in their hearts.
“I started selling the lemonade after the tornado went through Phil Campbell. I lost people, and we lost the school – the main core of the town,” Smith said.
Smith has sold her lemonade every year at the annual Phil Campbell Hoedown. “I was 10 years old when all of this started, but I already had so many memories at the old high school,” said Smith, who donates the money each year to help the school system.
Her efforts have paid off. According to Odom, in the three years that she’s been with the high school, she has raised around $1,000 – that’s not including the money she raised in her first three years, which went to elementary school programs.
“Because of her we’ve been able to buy things that the school needed that weren’t covered in the original rebuild,” Odom said.
To buy things the school needed, however, was only part of Smith’s goal.
“I will always remember Phil Campbell as a hopeful, happy town, and that’s how I want others to remember it as well,” she explained. “So I thought that selling the lemonade was a way that I could help with that.”
Smith and Odom both expressed fond memories of the old high school but said they love the new building too and are grateful for it. The memories are another reason Smith said she started selling lemonade.
“The new students will never know what the old high school was like, but I wanted to help give them a place to make memories like we had the chance to,” Smith explained.
She said she wants people to see what has been accomplished over the past few years and bring that hope back to the community.
“I hope others see what she has done and are inspired to do similar things for the community,” Odom said.
