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the Mokena Messenger | July 6, 2017 | 3
LWC family honors dad with lemonade stand for diabetes research
Kyle LaHucik, Editorial Intern
A Lincoln-Way Central
graduate and a future student
raised more than $170
for the American Diabetes
Association through a lemonade
stand June 21, which
was a fitting time for them.
Only a few days after Father’s
Day, Elaine and John
Pettit were raising money
for a cause that hits close to
home: Their father passed
away from diabetes four
years ago, at the age of 45.
Their mother, Dawn, recalls
thinking about what her
children were going through
at this time of the year.
“[The lemonade stand]
was touching because, in
fact, just a couple days before
I was wondering what it
was like for them to be seeing
Father’s Day ads,” Dawn
said.
Their mother’s worry
evaporated, though, as the
event carried on. Elaine and
John both said they felt more
comfortable by the end of
the event.
“It made it easier to share,
I guess,” Elaine said.
For each customer who
walked up to their stand,
which was located outside
their house on a street corner,
Elaine and John handed
them a pamphlet they had
created on their own. They
researched diabetes statistics
to include in it. On the
back cover, they wrote “In
memory of John,” the name
of their father, who had diabetes
since he was 14 years
old. They also included the
American Diabetes Association’s
mission statement
and other basic information.
“[Diabetes] is a pretty serious
issue in our country,
and I feel like there is a lot of
focus on cancer, and cancer
runs in our family, too, but
I feel like diabetes doesn’t
Drink for Diabetes
Research
Elaine and John Pettit
handed out pamphlets to
customers. Inside were
statistics that they found
through the American
Diabetes Association:
• “As of 2012, 29.1
million or 9.3 percent of
Americans suffer from
diabetes.”
• “1.4 million Americans
are diagnosed each
year.”
• “Diabetes is the 7th
leading cause of death
in the United States.”
get that kind of recognition,”
Elaine said.
Elaine, a Central grad who
is entering her junior year
of college, said she wrote a
research paper on depression
and any correlations it may
have with different kinds of
diabetes for her psychology
class. Though she doesn’t
study a subject related to
diabetes or the health field,
she said she still tries to keep
informed about the issue.
“I still try to learn more
about it and incorporate it
[into other things],” Elaine
said. “To me, it’s important
that there’s funding to keep
trying to find a cure or some
sort of better antidote or
something.
“I know we’re not the
only ones who have seen it
or gone through it.”
Elaine and John felt their
efforts “brought the community
together, slightly.”
“I was able to get my
friends [and their families]
to come over and support
it,” said John, who will be
a freshman at Lincoln-Way
Central in the fall. “They did
donate a lot. I was grateful
for their donations.”
The fundraiser lasted a
Lincoln-Way Central grad Elaine Pettit holds up a sign June 21 to attract cars to the lemonade stand she and her brother,
John (right), started to raise money for the American Diabetes Association. Photos by James Sanchez/22nd Century Media
Elaine Pettit gives Alex Findlay (right) a cup of lemonade.
little more than four hours,
and they plan to carry out
two more by summer’s end.
The number of people who
showed up and the amount
of money raised were positives,
Elaine and John said.
“It was a lot more than I
had even like dreamed of in
a way,” Elaine said of the
amount of money they raised.
“It felt like a good accomplishment,
and it made me
excited to do it again because
of how many people seemed
enthusiastic about it.”
One of the customers
who stood out to Elaine and
Elaine and John also created handmade pamphlets
detailing the importance of donating toward research.
John was a woman who was
wearing a shirt related to
diabetes. Elaine recalled her
asking for a cup so she could
pour all of her spare change
into it.
Another customer also
had a connection to diabetes.
“I think our very last customer
was our neighbor –-
we had never met him before.
He talked about how
his father had diabetes,”
Elaine said. “It meant a lot
to him that we were out
there.”