‘They saved me’: Madison duo raises money for St. Jude through lemonade stand

MADISON, Ala. (WHNT) — What may have seemed like a routine lemonade stand on a hot, July day was anything but ordinary. This one had a deeper meaning.

It was the third annual Landri and Mae’s lemonade stand, a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Hospital and the brainchild of 11-year-old Maelin-Kate Carlson and 12-year-old Landri Kruse. The duo started the stand because of a personal tie to St. Jude.

“We are doing a lemonade stand for St. Jude because I’m a St. Jude patient,” Maelin Carlson said. “They saved me and I want to help all the other kids at St. Jude.”

“It’s very exciting,” Kruse said. “Definitely my favorite day of summer.”

The pair sold cookies, raffle tickets for prizes, and of course, lots of lemonade. All proceeds benefited the place where Carlson spent six months in 2019 to receive a bone marrow transplant.

“We lived at St. Jude for six months, and she continues to go there twice a year. She’ll go there for the rest of her life. She had a bone marrow transplant in 2019, and we didn’t pay a single penny for anything. They gave us a place to stay, they fed us, all her medications, all her treatments,” Maelin’s mother, Megan Carlson, said. “If it wasn’t for St. Jude, she wouldn’t be here today, so we are just so grateful that we can give back and hope other families can benefit from what St. Jude does.”

Since its first year, the event has grown. The girls have raised over $8,000 in the first two years and have no plans of slowing down.

“The girls are determined that they are going to do this until they are living in a nursing home together, so this is going to go on for like another 80 years,” Carlson said. “There’s no stopping, they want to do this, they got the bug.”

While life may have given Maelin lemons, Landri helped her make lemonade, touching countless lives while having some fun.