Posted: Mon, 3 May 2010 10:27 PM - 7,967 Readers

By: Patrick George

Is there anything better than a cool glass of lemonade on a warm, sunny day? Ten thousand Austin children don't think so.

If you happened upon lemonade stands scattered across the city Sunday, it wasn't a coincidence that could be chalked up to summerlike weather. Sunday was Lemonade Day, during which up to 10,000 young entrepreneurs set up stands and sold lemonade in every part of Austin. Kids from San Francisco to Durham, N.C., did the same — selling drinks to learn how to operate a business and give back to the community.

The event, sponsored by H-E-B, Imperial Sugar and others, gave out packets with information on how to start a stand to kids who registered online. The youths chose where to set up their stands.

For Sara Lozano-Sanchez , that location was a shady spot with picnic tables next to Güero's on South Congress Avenue. Last year, Sara's lemonade stand raised more than $200, which she donated to the American Diabetes Association's Tour de Cure . This year, she was aiming to raise $300 for Our Mission Possible Austin, an inner-city ministry program.

"Last year we were in the sun, and it was very hot," the 13-year-old said. "South Congress is a good spot. It's very busy with people walking by on weekends."

Her lemonade recipe includes one grapefruit, 20 key limes, six oranges and six mandarins.

Out on Lake Austin Boulevard, 12-year-old Alesha Barnett had a stand set up with help from Sweet Leaf Tea. Last week at the Austin Children's Museum, Barnett's lemonade won a taste contest, which supplied her with the Sweet Leaf stand and a year's supply of tea.

Her recipe: fresh lemon juice, a half-cup of sugar, three tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk and three cups of water.

"It was different from all the other kinds of lemonades," Alesha said. Her 11-year-old brother, Shawn, was also selling a tasty raspberry-blackberry lemonade.

Skylar McBurnett, 14, and her friends from the Girls' School of Austin were on a mission with their lemonade stand on Windsor Road. The eighth-graders are going on a class trip to Moab, Utah, this month, and their stand was set up to raise money for their seventh-grade classmates' trip next year. Girls from several grades at the school helped out.

They had nearly 20 gallons of lemonade on hand. Their recipe: H-E-B lemonade powder, water and "lots of lemons," Skylar said.

"It's cool to see the little kids' faces when we get a customer," she said.