PROVIDENCE — When kids set up a lemonade stand in the summer, they’re usually lucky if they can make a couple of bucks to spend on candy, ice cream, or maybe even a toy.
But everything about 4-year-old Brady Vieira and his family’s recent venture is quite different than that business model, and also, quite literally, much more heartwarming.
On a recent Saturday afternoon outside their East Providence home, the Vieiras set up “Brady’s Hot Chocolate Stand’’ — and brought in more than $2,000, as WJAR first reported.
Every dollar will now go to Hope & Faith Drive, LLC, a local charity supporting families and children in need this holiday season, according to Brady’s mother, Lindsey Vieira.
The idea for the stand first came to the family last year, when Vieira and her husband, Cosmo Vieira, were trying to find a way to teach their son about the importance of helping people, she said.
“Brady’s an only child and he doesn’t really want for much, and he’s spoiled, you know. So we figure we have to do something to teach him that everything isn’t so easy — [that] it doesn’t just come to everybody so easy, and there are less fortunate kids out there,’’ Vieira told the Globe.
During the stand’s first run last year, they raised just over $500 for Hope & Faith Drive, she said. They set up the stand again this year on Nov. 16. Brady and his family opened for business for three hours that afternoon — and ended up serving well over 100 people. The stand didn’t charge a specific price per cup, as patrons were able to provide a donation instead.
By the end of the day, they had raised $2,076 — a sum about four times greater than the previous year. They beat last year’s total before the stand even opened, as contributions began flowing in once Vieira posted about how to donate online.
“Aside from the monetary earnings, we have instilled lifelong values into our son,’’ she wrote in a Facebook post. “Brady can be anything he wants to be, but kind is nonnegotiable.’’
Christopher Gavin can be reached at christopher.gavin@globe.com.
