july 2025: free Lemonade
Out of close to 250 individual donors to the Chris Eaton Foundation over the past year and a half, we never imagined a donation would come from the proprietor of a free lemonade stand on a beach in Southern California…
It all started when a fantasy football league based in California decided that the loser at the end of the season would have to set up a lemonade stand somewhere in public as a further penalty for coming in last. Proceeds from lemonade sales would be donated to a charity of the loser’s choice. In addition to Michael Eaton, league participants included good friends Kyle and Bradley Zimmer and Jose Vizcaino, Jr., who all played pro baseball, and several other friends and sports fans. One of those was San Diego lawyer Ben Steigerwalt.
Ben didn’t do as well as anyone else in the league, so on July 19, he honorably set up a FREE LEMONADE stand on the boardwalk at Pacific Beach/San Diego, with a sign advising he had come in last in a fantasy football league. Ben gave away ice cold lemonade for free, but advertised that he was accepting donations from beachgoers for the Chris Eaton Foundation. One at a time, slowly but surely, people dropped coins and bills in a jar. When the lemonade ran out, Ben counted out $390 in donations, which he sent to the CEF through our website. Thank you, Ben, and thanks to all of our donors! Better luck in the next fantasy football season!
