Recently we’ve discovered a young girl doing extraordinary things. At the tender age of 11 Juliette has created a lemonade stand to raise money for research into Motor Neurone Disease. This is a cause that is very close to our hearts and we simply had share with you Juliette’s story as told by her mother.
“My name is Claudia, I’m Juliette’s Mum. As you probably already know, my family and I are terribly proud of Juliette and her efforts to raise money and awareness for MND NSW through her lemonade stand. She is inspirational to us all. It was my Dad who had MND, I cared for him in the last year of his life, along side my Mum. His name was Sam Frasca, and he was a very special man to say the least.
We found out in Aug 2012 that he had MND and we were all shocked and saddened. I immediately set to work finding out all I could about the disease that would eventually take my dads life.
I had heard of MND previously, but I had no idea it was incurable and 100% fatal. I was horrified by how cruel the disease was and, couldn’t believe my dad would have to endure what was to come. I had no idea how to help him, or if I could help him. But when the time came I dedicated myself to giving him the most dignified life possible. One thing MND taught me was, no matter how low life seems, how hopeless it gets, if you have love you have everything. Money, status, power, possessions, NONE of it matters when you are nearing the end of your life.
My Dad used to say that he had everything because he had family. He felt like the richest man in the world because he had my Mum and I looking after him until the end. And although I was devastated that my beautiful Dad was sick, I felt so honoured to have had the opportunity to look after him in the last year of his life.
During this time, Juliette felt so helpless. She wanted to do something to help her Nonno, just like her Mum was, but didn’t know how one little girl could make a difference. To her it seemed impossible, until she saw people taking the Ice Bucket Challenge on social media and TV. Seeing individuals taking the challenge, she saw first hand how just one person could actually make a difference. It planted a seed, that grew into an idea, that started a conversation, that turned into action, that became a reality and eventually gave the gift of healing to us all and she was determined to do something to help everyone who suffered from this cruel disease.
Her idea was to start a business at our local market to help raise money to find a cure for MND. Today, that tiny seed has grown into her own lemonade stand. She came up with her own lemonade recipe, her own branding, the name of the stand and recruited her own volunteers to help. She wastes nothing of the lemon, using the juice for her delicious lemonade and lemon meringue tarts, the zest for lemon coconut body scrub, candied lemon peel, preserved lemons, lemon curd and lemon pepper seasoning among other things. Her profits and donations are given to the MND NSW Association and as of last Sat has raised over $1200.
Her stall is at Ramsgate Organic Foodies Market, Ramsgate Public School, Chuter Ave Ramsgate, every Saturday from 8am-2pm. Her wish is to grow, to get the word out there that MND is incurable and we need to find a way to eradicate it from this earth forever.
She is amazing us with her tenacity and how people are being affected by her. She has the support of our local community, has been in our local paper, among some other exciting opportunities on the horizon we hope will manifest into real dollars for research. She has our hearts and 100% support for all she is doing for MND and we are so very pleased for our beautiful Juliette.
Kind regards,
Claudia Frasca-Jones”
