Olympic Hills neighbors honor 9/11 with cookies and lemonade

Neighbors and visitors gathered in Eden Prairie’s Olympic Hills community Thursday evening for the 23rd annual 9/11 Lemonade & Cookie Stand, raising about $2,500 at the event and securing an additional $5,000 pledge to support veterans and cadets.

Families, veterans, firefighters, police officers, and cadets from the Como Park Marine Corps JROTC crowded the driveway of a home at Olympia Drive and Painters Ridge, where teens from the Bright Side Service League of Eden Prairie sold lemonade and cookies. Small American flags lined the neighborhood streets.

At 5 p.m. and again at 6, the cadets presented the color guard. Two members stood at attention at the street corner near the front of the house while neighbors nearby sipped lemonade, ate cookies, and chatted. At the end of that same driveway, an Eden Prairie fire truck idled, its crew stepping forward to salute.

Co-organizer Nicole Erickson said the crew baked 180 dozen cookies to meet demand.

All proceeds benefit the Minnesota Veterans Homes and the Como Park Marine Corps JROTC. The stand also partners with North Star Marine Veterans, co-founded in 2015 by Olympic Hills resident William Crawford, who pledged an additional $5,000 this year to both causes.

The Olympic Hills stand began in 2001, launched by neighbor Sue Donkersgoed and her son’s classmates in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks. After a two-year hiatus, it returned last year under the leadership of Erickson, fellow co-organizer Steph Keck, and volunteers from the Bright Side Service League, a new group of high school students and mentors dedicated to community service.

Since its inception, the event has raised more than $100,000 for veterans’ groups and 9/11-related causes.