Throngs turn out for LemonAid’s 25th anniversary

Twenty-five years later, a much older Carl Olson held up his outstretched arm to the very first LemonAid banner.  

There, up in the top left corner were his own red handprints from when he was a baby, just above his name, next to those of dozens of other youngsters from way back when. 

“I was really small,” Olson mused as hundreds made their way Friday along the 700 block of Bonnie Brae Place in River Forest for the 25th edition of LemonAid, an event that has raised well over $700,000 for nonprofits and charities primarily throughout the Oak Park and River Forest area. 

And that amount doesn’t include proceeds from this year. But like the day it commemorates – the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center towers – LemonAid is about people and history. 

“It goes to show how small LemonAid used to be,” Olson, an event co-chair, added of his handprints. “It used to be two tents. Now it’s tens of tents.” 

Indeed, tents galore ran along both curbs of Bonnie Brae Place, flanked by banners from previous LemonAids, which harkens to history. But on this sun-splashed late-summer Friday, fun was the order of the day. 

There was Beat the Streets Chicago’s booth featuring a pullup bar. If kids could do 10 pullups, they’d receive swag from the wrestling organization like T-shirts and socks.  

Fun, for sure, and maybe even hilarity when a reporter tried his hand at the task, failing miserably. But look deeper and chat with Beat the Streets program director Patrick Martinez. 

“I remember I was in sixth grade,” he said of 9/11. “And I was a wrestler growing up, so that morning I was actually doing pullups in the living room with my dad when we watched the plane hit the tower.” 

He was clear that Friday’s pullup challenge was just a coincidence, but still, it took him back. 

Music drifted over the event, including an elegant piano performance from Oak Park and River Forest High School senior Helen Donoho. She, like Olson, was an event co-chair with fellow OPRF seniors Connor Chien and Mark Jung, along with Donoho’s Fenwick sophomore sister Miranda and Fenwick junior Ethan Wynne. Fifth grader Shalva Glick and fourth grader Sophie Sears were junior co-chairs this year. 

Donoho and Chien were born significantly after 9/11, but they know the story from their history classes. And while they realize it was a terrible moment in their country’s history, they also realize that some good came of it locally. 

“Really, the biggest way I learned about 9/11 was just going to LemonAid every year,” Chien said, “every year coming back to this event and learning more and more about what the attacks meant and what we’re doing about them, and why we’re giving back to this community.” 

And LemonAid will return for the foreseeable future. 

“With the help of the Oak Park and River Forest Kiwanis Club and River Forest Township, we are proud to announce that LemonAid will continue on 700 Bonnie Brae for 2027,” Chien announced at a bell-ringing ceremony, which included remarks from River Forest village Administrator Matt Walsh and a poem read by village Fire Chief Tom Gaertner. 

What future LemonAids will look like is still fluid, according to neighbors like Patty Henek and Chris Hauri, some of the founders back in 2001. River Forest Township Trustee Keith Strom, who noted his municipality has assisted with matters like permitting and insurance for LemonAid, said plans for a “LemonAid 2.0” will likely start in October. 

But that’s a news story for another day. What mattered Friday was that everyone had a good time, whether it was doing pullups at Beat the Streets Chicago’s tent, sit ups at the neighboring tent of Fitness Formula Clubs in Oak Park, or dancing around in the billowing foam at Wonder Works Chidren’s Museum’s area, complete with the Foam Daddy machine. A dozen or more laughing little ones were in the middle of the fun at any given time, along with Executive Director Rachel Weber. 

“Who doesn’t love bubbles?” Weber said. “They’re magical. It’s one of those things where they can dive into it and hide but still be visible to everybody and touch the bubbles. It’s a whole sensory experience.” 

As Walsh and Gaertner and others prepared their ceremonial remarks, 78th District state Rep. Camille Lilly spoke about what the event – foam and all – means to the community. 

“It means togetherness, it means love, driven by the future with our young people,” said Lilly, sitting in the front row. “There is no place else doing this work.” 

Olson thought the turnout for this year’s event was on par with recent years. Hauri thought it was better. 

“This has been one of the best things in my life,” Hauri said, standing next to a jar stuffed with monetary donations, “just in the way I’ve seen kids grow up with such a great spirit of philanthropy and just the community this builds and what we’ve done as a community.”