Boys raise thousands with charity lemonade stand in Colorado Springs

A troop of three young boys who had their charity lemonade stand shut down in Denver had a much better go of things when they set it up Thursday in Colorado Springs.

The Knowles boys’ lemonade stand earned nearly $3,000 for Compassion International Thursday, and when combined with their GoFundMe page for the group, they raised a whopping $8,222.89.

Jennifer Knowles’ children decided to set up the lemonade stand over Memorial Day weekend in the Stapleton Neighborhood of Denver. It was part fun activity, part learning experience, and part charitable act — the kids planned to donate all of their proceeds to Compassion International to help a child in Indonesia with basic necessities.

But a half-hour into the stand’s operation, police officers came by and shut the business down because they didn’t have the proper permits. Knowles told our partners at Denver7 that someone from the art show called the police and complained about the stand.

“The police officers, they couldn’t have been nicer, but someone complained about us,” Knowles said.

A rep from the city of Denver’s permitting department said they don’t typically enforce its rules against children, but if a call is made to police about a lemonade stand, the owners can be asked to shut it down.

But Compassion International in Colorado Springs heard about the kids’ efforts and reached out to host them for a new lemonade stand at their property.

In addition to helping out a child in need, the boys learned a valuable business lesson about location.