8-year-old is on a mission to raise funds for books

With a plastic cup in one hand and an ice scoop in the other, 8-year-old Ethan Francois, an incoming third-grader at the Leo F. Giblyn School in Freeport and an Elinor Street resident, dug around in a blue cooler for ice on a recent hot Thursday. After filling the cup with ice, he poured lemonade from the spout of a jug.

“Never think you’re too small. If you want to do something, do your dream,” Ethan said. “You can do whatever you want to do.”

What Ethan wants to do is raise $10,000 for the Freeport Education Foundation so Giblyn can get a new set of books this school year.

He’s no stranger to charity work. In the past, he has raised thousands of dollars through Ethan’s Lemonade Stand to support childhood and prostate cancer research, collecting $2,200 in 2017 alone.

His father, Garvey, 36, taught his son “to make lemonade when life throws you lemons,” according to Ethan.

“I’m excited,” he said. “Most of my friends go to my school, and the money is going back to my school. I really think we really new books.”

Pulling up in a black SUV, Nikki Clennon, 38, and her daughter, Ava, 3, of Baldwin, greeted Ethan and his father and asked for a cup of lemonade. “I think that what [Ethan] is doing, [as] opposed to all of the other kids, is amazing,” Clennon said. “We have to support [kids like this]. He’s being an entrepreneur, and this is more than another level — he’s helping the community.”

A small line formed to one side of the stand, and with a smile, Ethan asked customers whether they would like a touch of mint in their lemonade.

The next customer in line, Tony Vega, from Roosevelt, greeted Ethan enthusiastically. Vega was passing through the neighborhood when he saw Ethan setting up the stand. “I saw this stand and I had to stop,” Vega said in between sips of lemonade. “I had to meet and talk to him. I had to commend him personally for doing what he’s doing.”

This year Ethan secured local sponsors who provided raffle prizes for his effort, and he started a GoFundMe page, which had raised $445 as of press time.

The idea to open the stand started when he was in pre-kindergarten, according to his father. One afternoon, Ethan told his parents he wanted to open a lemonade stand to earn money. Willing to humor their son, Garvey and his wife, Juanita, 34, helped Ethan get set up. When they asked him what he would do with the money he earned, Ethan, who was 5 at the time, told his parents he wanted to donate his earnings to charity.

“I want to give back to the community,” he said. “I live here, and I want to give. I can’t just take. I have to give back.”

His parents said they were shocked. “I thought Ethan wanted to buy a new video game,” Garvey said. “But when he said he wanted to help people in need, my wife and I were happy to help him in any way that we can to do that.”

By noon on that recent Thursday, Ethan was selling lemonade to a long line of customers — family members, friends and neighbors The Riego family, from two doors down, were among them. “I’m proud to have neighbors like Ethan,” Amanda Riego, said. “We hope our donations do help Freeport schools — our schools.”

When Ethan isn’t making lemonade, he likes to play football, ride his bike with the neighborhood kids, attend kickboxing classes or read. This summer he has finished 90 books, according to Garvey, who added that his son is an avid participant in the Freeport Memorial Library summer reading program.

“Our neighbors have always been supportive, not just . . . our local neighbors, but our neighboring towns, too,” Garvey said.