Along with summer holidays comes the ubiquitous curbside lemonade stand.
From manufacturing and marketing to front-line sales, the business is generally handled entirely by elementary schoolaged kids getting their first taste of entrepreneurship and personal earnings.
For three Burnaby girls who have made it an annual tradition, this year was a bit special.
Rather than make a profit, they turned their lemonade sales into a fundraiser for the less fortunate.
It was inspiration from a front cover story in the Burnaby NOW's July 27 issue that spawned Monica Chow's idea to suggest her kids, Lindsay, 10, and Beverly, 7, and their neighbourhood friend April Louie, 7, donate their earnings to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank.
The article reported a need for donations is at an all-time high this summer, with a 25 per cent increase in Burnaby and New Westminster over this time last year.
"They jumped at it when I made the suggestion," said Chow, who noted it's important to her that her kids learn the value of treating others as they would like to be treated themselves.
"I want them to take on those kind of values," she said. "And they had fun doing it."
The girls sold homemade cookies and blueberry muffins for 25 cents each, as well as hand-squeezed lemonade and iced tea for 10 cents a glass.
Living in a quiet neighbourhood, it wasn't easy to get customers at first, but the girls found a way to entice thirsty neighbours.
"Nobody came for, like, 20 minutes, and then we got a tambourine and started yelling like crazy," said Lindsay.
To ensure customers knew where the proceeds were going, Lindsay handed them a copy of the article and suggested they read it while waiting for their drinks to be poured.
At the end of the day, the girls raised about $15 from customers who were "very generous," according to Chow.
"It was awesome," Lindsay said of the experience.
