By Mary O’KEEFE

Hurricane Sandy may have been on the other side of the country, but the effects of the devastating storm have been felt in La Crescenta.
Those who have family and friends on the East Coast continue to get updates on loved ones – when phone service is available. On Monday, Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, speaking to a group of students at Mountain Avenue Elementary, shared how hard his old neighborhood in New Jersey was hit by the storm.
At one point, a reported 2.4 million people were without power along the east coast. Television and social media were full of images of flooded New York and New Jersey streets. And storms continue to batter, with cold temperatures and snow yesterday and today.
While the rain and snow fell in the east, in sunny La Crescenta some young Crescenta Valley girls decided to do something to help those on the opposite coast. On Sunday, the girls set up a lemonade stand near their home and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. they sold glasses of lemonade – lots of lemonade.

“We made $1,127.29,” said Amy Greenman, a seventh grader at Rosemont Middle School.

Proceeds from the lemonade fundraiser were sent to the American Red Cross to help those that were affected by Hurricane Sandy.

“It makes me feel like I did something really important,” said Payton Ashe, first grader at Monte Vista Elementary.

Others involved in the lemonade philanthropy were Melissa Iyoya, a Rosemont student and Amy’s sister Gwen, a first grader at Monte Vista.

“We wanted to do it for people that don’t have anything [because of the storm],” Amy said.

This is not the first time the girls have relied on lemonade to help those in need. They opened their lemonade stand to help victims of Hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005, and the 2008 Sayre Fire that destroyed hundreds of homes.

And now the girls of Crescenta Valley have a challenge for kids everywhere: Set up a lemonade stand and help Sandy victims.

“That would be a good idea,” Amy said.

“Yeah,” agreed sister Gwen.

Amy said she didn’t know if the people in New York even knew where La Crescenta was, but that didn’t matter – they just wanted to help.

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  Mary Okeefe