Sister Takes a Lemon(aids) Stand

By Carly and Marissa Waters, New York H&V

If you can stand up and advocate for others who need help, you should. This is exactly what nine-year-old Carly started to do in honor of her two younger sisters. When Carly’s baby sister Molly was born last year with hearing loss, we had our other children tested. We soon learned that Carly’s middle sister, Emma, just starting school, had a bilateral hearing loss, too.  We saw she was starting to struggle in school, but we might not have known why until her baby sister’s identification.

Our first few months as a family of five with three girls and two sets of hearing aids to keep track of was challenging. We learned the importance of taking good care of them. Keeping the hearing aids safe and operational was crucial because of their importance to each daughter and their expense. When Carly learned that some children waited a long time or couldn’t get hearing aids at all because of lack of insurance coverage or family budgets, she started thinking.

Carly loved watching her sisters hearing new sounds and learning new things, and quickly saw the importance these tiny devices had firsthand. When she learned more about how lucky we were to be able to get a set for each of her sisters, she was sad that some children had to go without simply because of finances. “Mom, I just want to help as many kids as I can to hear!” she said.

Carly came up with a plan to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for hearing aids.  “Lemonade for hearing aids! Get it?” she said. Unfortunately, we learned that we would have to purchase a permit for a child to host a lemonade stand in our community, so we challenged her to think of a different way to raise money. Carly brainstormed. She combined her original idea with her love of sewing and made a cute eight-inch stuffed lemon plushie. She has made and sold hundreds of “lemon-aids” to people all over the world. Through her efforts, she has been able to help many children by donating funds to their families and/or actual hearing aids. She stays motivated by learning more about hearing loss and the importance of wearing hearing aids.

“I want kids to be able to feel confident, happy and do well. I don’t want families to have to worry about money. All kids and adults who need hearing aids should be able to have them. I just want the world to know about kids and people with hearing loss and how awesome they are.”

Carly’s efforts have been recognized by HearStrong’s founder Ed Keller and pro football Hall of Fame player Jim Kelly, who has a hearing loss himself. On a recent Good Morning America Strahan and Sara segment, HearStrong donated $5,000 to Carly’s efforts with a promise to match funds up to $25,000 in the future. Carly is still sewing and networking to help more kids.   ~

Editor’s note: For more information, or to make a donation or purchase a Lemon-aid, visit lemonaids.org or follow Lemon-aids on Facebook at http://facebook.com/lemon-aids or on Instagram at lemonaids4hearingaids. Thank you to Emilee Foster, Teacher of the Deaf and a Board member for the New York Chapter for helping with this article. 

H&V Communicator – Summer 2019