The Women’s Society of the First Congregational Church of Western Springs is fulfilling the old adage, “if life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” From 11:30 a.m. until approximately 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7, the organization will hold its Lemon-Aid Festival.

The event will support charitable effort that would normally be funded by the Women’s Society’s semi-annual rummage sales.  Lori Lubera, one of the event coordinators, explained that the shift in events resulted from a mechanical failure.

“Our elevator at First Congregational broke this past spring and so we didn’t get to have the rummage sale,” she said.

Each sale, she said, traditionally will raise as much as $30,000.

“All that money we raise goes to different missions, charities in need of money. We didn’t get to raise that this year and this is our way of trying to recoup of losses,” Lubera said.

When the Women’s Society realized that last springs’ rummage sale couldn’t be repeated, a group got together to brainstorm alternative fundraisers. The idea of a county-fair style family event was conceived.

“Somebody said, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade or in this case, lemon-aid,” she recalled.

The Lemon-Aid Festival will be held on what is known as “kick-off Sunday” at First Congregational Church. This, Lubera explained, is the first Sunday after summer ends when people tend to return to their normal routines and, in this case, attend church services. The event will start immediately after services and will include a cake walk, games for the kids, a teddy bear story hour, hula hoops, bubbles, face-painting, and more. Food will include popcorn, hot dogs, cookies and, of course, lemonade.

The Woman’s Society will also introduce its cookie-dough sales fundraiser, which will be ongoing over the next months. Money at the Lemon-Aid Festival will be raised through donations and pledges from church members. Organizations benefiting from the event will include Plymouth Place, Buddy’s Place, Seeds of Hope, a joint soup kitchen and more.

For further information, visit www.wscongo.org or call (708) 246-1900.

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