An 8-year-old central Florida boy wanted to build a lemonade stand to raise money for a friend battling cancer. But when he and his mother arrived at their local Home Depot store to get supplies the store promised at a discount, they discovered a stand had already been built for them.
"I thought I was going to pick up the discounted supplies," Dawn Redmon of Apopka told CBS News on Wednesday. "And it was a big, sturdy and beautiful lemonade stand."
Redmon said her son, Christian, wanted to raise money for a 4-year-old friend who is suffering from stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer found mostly in children. The cancer forms in a person's soft tissue.
Because the boy’s family needed help paying for medical expenses, Redmon said her son wanted to lend a hand. Redmon said she contacted the Home Depot, which agreed to give them supplies.
Redmon said she was stunned when she found the stand was already built.
"My heart is so full and I am so touched by the AMAZING ladies at Home Depot who made this possible for me!" Redmon wrote in a Facebook post, showing pictures of the fully constructed lemonade stand with the employees smiling
"To know that people still exist and do things like this just makes me so happy!" she wrote. "You all went above and beyond and I cannot thank you enough!! Home Depot in Apopka is the BEST!"
Redmon told CBS News that other businesses have agreed to help with Christian's fundraising event. The lemonade stand will make its debut Saturday at the Tractor Supply in Apopka on Sept. 1. A GoFundMe page has been set up for the 4-year-old boy, with the goal of $25,000. Nearly $16,000 had been raised by late Friday.
"Other businesses in the community are now helping with the event," Redmon told CBS News. "I have businesses donating things to our raffle. (Home Depot's) good deed went way beyond the lemonade stand."
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