A 6-Year-Old’s $768 Lemonade Stand Has Grown Into a $5 Million Children’s Charity

When Payton Obert was 6, she raised $768 at a lemonade stand outside her home near Cincinnati and spent all of it on toys for patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Eight years later, the effort she started, Payton’s Lemonade Stand, has raised more than $5 million in money and donated goods, The Times of India reported, citing the nonprofit and the Cincinnati Open.

A hospital teddy bear inspired the first stand

Payton was given a teddy bear during a hospital stay at age 2 and kept it long after she recovered. In 2018 she set up the stand “so other kids could get a toy” like she did, she told The Epoch Times. Her mother, Jess Obert, expected spare change.

“Honest to God, I thought people were gonna show up with their quarters and give us 50 cents for a cup. But they were dropping $20s, $50s, $100s in the jar.” — Jess Obert, Payton’s mother

From one driveway to more than 100 stands in three states

The second stand, in 2019, raised about $7,000. In 2020, despite the pandemic, eight more stands opened across Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky and brought in more than $35,000. The project became a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2021.

In 2025, more than 100 stands across Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana raised more than $150,000 in three hours. This year, a record 110 sites signed up for the ninth annual event on July 25, run by children, families, businesses, fire departments and residents of senior living homes.

The money now reaches more than 40 local organizations

The nonprofit supports more than 40 groups that distribute funds, toys, clothing, coats and food to children in hospitals, shelters, foster care and low-income homes. Its total revenue in 2025 topped $1 million, including about $800,000 in donated goods, according to its annual report as cited by The Epoch Times.

Payton, now 14, was named this year as one of 11 Cincy Serves honorees by the Cincinnati Open and Fifth Third Bank, an award that came with a $5,300 donation to a charity of her choice. “As long as one person is smiling, then I’ve done my job,” she said.