A little girl selling lemonade to pay for her own brain surgeries is inspiring people around the world with her bravery.
She has helped her family raise more than $315,000 to help pay for the procedures.
When Liza Scott got to know that she needed to have brain surgery, the 7-year-old told her mother that she wanted to sell lemonade to help pay for it.
“She just said she wanted to go to the bakery and start selling lemonade to help her get her surgeries,” mom Elizabeth Scott, 41, who works at her family-owned Savage’s Bakery in Homewood, Alabama, said. “I just said, ‘Well that’s fine. You can go set up your lemonade stand,’ not really thinking it would amount to much.”
That stand, along with her online fundraiser, “Lemonade for Liza – Zest for Life w/ Brain Surgery” helped pave the way for her upcoming surgeries at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Liza’s mother, Elizabeth Scott, said that her daughter has always tried to “lift a bit of the burden” around the house. Elizabeth runs the family business, Savage’s Bakery, and takes care of Liza and her 3-year-old brother, Finnley. “Liza has always shown the initiative to step up and take part in helping with things around the house or at the bakery even when it’s not expected or asked,” Elizabeth Scott said.
The surgeries were needed after the 7-year-old suffered a grand mal seizure at the end of January, and doctors at Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham uncovered multiple cerebral malformations in her brain. The surgeries will protect Liza from having any further seizures as well as possible brain bleeds, hemorrhages, or strokes, according to her fundraising page.
For the past month, Liza spent her time selling homemade lemonade for 25 cents a cup and the stand has raised anywhere from $15,000-$20,000, her mom said. “Liza has taken the lemons thrown her way and shown us all that adding a little zest to life is what making lemonade is all about,” her fundraiser reads.
Those funds are in addition to the more than $302,000 that have poured into the family’s online fundraiser. With expenses piling up, Elizabeth Scott said it is unimaginable how much the surgeries are going to cost, even after insurance kicks in.
But with support pouring in their way, it is unbelievable how strangers have come to the rescue. “It’s pretty unbelievable when you hear of communities and people helping out strangers around the world,” she said. “You never expect or imagine that it’s going to be you.”
On Monday, Liza and her mom are headed to Boston for her first of multiple surgeries. The family has a message for everyone, to “raise your glass of lemonade high” because “this little warrior girl is adding a little more zest to life each and every day.”