Mac Brown started selling lemonade in an effort to raise money to fight ALS when he was in seventh grade. And that hasn’t stopped now that he’s a junior at Ole Miss.
The Rebels punter’s Awesome Lemonade Stand fundraiser has raised nearly $70,000 by selling lemonade for a quarter, according to Davis McCool of Ole Miss Athletics. And it all started when Brown’s friend’s father was fighting ALS when Brown was in middle school.
“He made a difference in my life,” Brown said, per McCool. “Seeing the struggle that his family went through—that was one of the first losses in my life that I experienced firsthand. Seeing his family watch him go through the pain of him fighting for life made me want to get off my couch and do something as well.”
The lemonade stand may have had small beginnings, but it has really taken off over the years. It’s an annual tradition for Brown and his family to host the event in his hometown of Eden Prairie, Minn.
But it’s also made its way to Oxford, Miss. Brown, along with some of his Ole Miss teammates and staffers, plan to host the Awesome Lemonade Stand in front of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium prior to the Rebels’ game against Vanderbilt on Oct. 5.
Ole Miss kicker Luke Logan has been part of Brown’s lemonade stand fundraiser before, so he knows what to expect.
“They’ve just been great experiences,” Logan said. “You start early in the morning and people start driving by slowly and slowly, and all of a sudden you just get hit with a rush of people once the word gets out. There’s just 100 kids holding one- and two-dollar bills, and it’s great to see kids just walk up and hand you whatever they can.”
More information on Brown’s fundraiser is available at the Awesome Lemonade Stand site.
Jake Rill contributes to news coverage for Saturday Down South. He has covered the SEC since 2016.
