Children who attended second second grade with the sprint car driver injured in a speedway accident recently operated a lemon stand to help the boy’s family with hospital bills. (Escanaba Daily Press photo)
ESCANABA — Classmates of Easton Winling, the eight-year-old who was badly injured during a crash at Escanaba Motor Speedway last month, recently ran a lemonade stand and snack sale to raise money for the boy’s family.
An accident on June 7 landed the youngster in the hospital for just over a week after his car hit the wall during a youth micro sprints race on the dirt track at the Upper Peninsula State Fairgrounds. Winling is making a good recovery and is happy to be home, reported a family friend. Though in a neck brace, he made it to his first communion at St. Anne Catholic Church recently.
Children who attended Lemmer Elementary School with Winling in Mrs. Trombley’s second-grade class wanted to do something to help their friend, said mother Kadie Lucas, whose twins Hayley and Isla have been in school with Easton for the last three years.
Monday afternoon was a perfect day for a lemonade stand — on the tail end of the heat wave that had plagued the area this past weekend, temps outdoors were high, thirst-inducing but not unbearable.
Outside 1110 9th Ave. S. in Escanaba, children manned both a booth selling lemonade (to “aid” their friend) and a table offering baked goods, candy and freeze pops. Other kids held signs at ends of the street, directing people towards the setup.
Not long after the event began at 3 p.m., the sidewalk and boulevard were crowded with customers, parents and friends seemingly undeterred by the road construction blocking access at one end of the block. Cash passed to little hands and entered a plastic cash register under a pink awning while adults sipped lemonade and lingered in the shade of trees.
Kadie credited the good turnout in part to people spreading the word. Plenty of people were making donations not just on the spot but also by Venmo to the account handled “Easton-aide.”
This was not the first fundraiser to help the Winlings after Easton’s accident; a collection was also held during intermission at the Escanaba Motor Speedway on June 15.
