Nine-Year-Old Raises Money to Benefit Fire Fighter With Cancer

September 15, 2011 – After Williamsport, PA Local 736 member Jeff Cole was diagnosed with cancer, affiliate members and others rallied around him in support. But perhaps the most touching support came from nine-year-old Carlee Weber, who raised $415 for Cole selling lemonade.

Weber has always been special to Cole and the members of Local 736. Not only is she Local 736 Vice President Keith Lucas’s stepdaughter, but also serves as the affiliate’s MDA Goodwill Ambassador.

The lemonade stand was Carlee’s idea. Local 736 Vice President Lucas recalls that soon after she heard of Cole’s diagnosis, she asked him to take her to Lowe’s. When he asked why, she said she wanted to get some wood to build a lemonade stand. She planned to give the money she earned to Cole.

“He [Cole] has always been there for me when I needed him and I wanted to do the same for him,” Carlee told Lucas.

With the money in hand, Carlee visited the firehouse to present the money she raised to Cole. “It was a really heart-warming moment,” says Lucas. “No one told him that she had raised the money. So, he was really surprised and touched by what she had done.”