Nine-year-old Joshua Smith from Detroit was able to raise over $3,000 in a matter of days, received a praise of the mayor and helped his home town save a local park and received a scholarship. How did he manage to do it? Well, read on about Joshua’s breakthrough experience.

It all started with his mother trying to explain Joshua why he couldn’t walk down the street to play in his neighborhood park. The thing is, Detroit is suffering from layoffs, high crime and a lack of parks for kids to play. The city only has enough money to cut the grass twice a year and there’s just too much trash down there, his mother explained.

This is when a lemonade stand idea popped into this young community activist’s mind. The goal was to raise $1,000 to help out the local neighborhood park on Detroit’s West Side. Who could have thought then the kids would end up raising $3,000 with donations coming from all over the world, from California and London to South Africa!

The word of the lemonade stand had spread through social media and eventually radio and television. People had also begun dropping off donations at the family’s mail slot.

“I’m very proud of him.” Joshua’s father said. “It’s not often that someone sees a small problem and wants to do anything about it, much less a big problem – the city’s broke. We have adults who understand some of the complexities of that and come away jaded and negative.”

Quickly afterwards, members of the Detroit City Council presented his family with a “Spirit of Detroit” award.

This young kid has proved that change can happen, one just has to start.

By RECHARGE365