Lemonade for a cause: Young Calgarian raises money for Ukraine

Some children spend their weekends with friends, others are playing sports, but there is at least one young Calgarian who is spending his free time raising money for an important cause.

Andrew Tereshchuk has started selling lemonade outside of his Glendale home to help people in Ukraine.

“I was originally thinking of starting a simple lemonade stand, and then I remembered the war in Ukraine, and I kind of put the two together,” said the nine-year-old.

Andrew’s lemonade stand is called ‘Little Kozaks’ and it’s collecting funds for the National Bank of Ukraine to go to the country’s military.

“Makes me feel very proud of him that he is willing to not only that he's willing to do this, but he understands the situation,” said Sergiy Tereshchuk, Andrew’s father.

The Tereshchuks say it’s a crisis that is close to their hearts, with family now safe in Western Ukraine.

“My sister does have a house very close to Kyiv,” said Tereshchuk. “She had a bombshell explosion in front of her house, destroying much of the house, blowing out the window, the roof and facade of the house.”

While the family is collecting donations at the stand, they have also created their own cups that have the donation information directly on them.

“You can thank my father for putting the (website) to go to donate directly,” said Andrew. “That was all my father’s idea and I really appreciate his idea.”

“At the end of the day we will have no idea how much we raised because we don’t have access to information of how much people are donating through (just the) website directly,” said Tereshchuk.

No matter how much is raised, the Tereshchuks say they are proud they are doing something to help.

“Some people are donating a lot of money which is very kind because Ukraine really needs it,” said Andrew.

The Tereshchuks say they will be continuing to spend their weekends selling lemonade for the foreseeable future.