Sunday Funday Moment: El Paso couple…

Great news for the children of Texas. As of today, it is completely legal for kids to sell lemonade at stands.

Back in June, Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill that prohibits cities and neighborhood associations from creating rules that block or regulate children trying to sell non-alcoholic drinks like lemonade on private property.

For Rene and Maria Elena Lopez the passing of this law is something they have been waiting for since the early 90s.

Rene and Maria have five children who are all grown up now, but back in the early 90s they needed to find a way to keep their five children busy, so they decided to do that by having a lemonade stand with their children.

If you ask them how the idea for the lemonade stand came about, you’ll get two answers.

“The idea I think came from my kids when they saw something on TV,” said Rene.

Maria, however, remembers it another way.

“It was just a very hot day and you guys asked to do a lemonade stand,” said Maria.

No matter the answer, those lemonade stand memories were something their children will never forget.

“We went ahead and just put a table out in the front, made some lemonade and sat our kids out in the front to see if anyone would stop by,” said Maria.

Maria was in charge of tracking the donations her children received and Rene was in charge of making fresh lemonade, something he said was key to getting customers.

“It’s important to have real lemonade. Not powdered lemonade because people can tell. When you have real lemonade it keeps them coming,” said Rene.

Fast forward 25-years later and the lemonade stand tradition continues, but the stand has been upgraded all thanks to Maria’s handy older brother, Mario Cisneros, who took on the wooden lemonade stand project to help his sister and brother-in-law hand down the tradition to their grand-children.

“It makes us feel proud and happy that even my grandkids wanna do it,” said Maria.

“It’s kinda like taking your kid fishing. It’s an experience that kids don’t normally get,” said Rene.

Even El Paso’s own Mayor, Dee Margo, sent a personal letter to the Lopez’s commending them on a job well done.

For Rene and Maria’s children, the fact that their parents decided to turn a random idea into a decades long tradition is something they can all agree they are thankful for.

“It’s a good feeling that a tradition is being carried on with our grandkids and maybe they’ll carry it on with their own children,” said Maria.

KVIA