Inspired by years of reading children's stories to his own daughters Caroline and Catherine, Paul Reichert '90 recently finished writing and illustrating his own book titled The Lemonade Ripple: An Adventure in Philanthropy. The story is about a young girl who is motivated to start a lemonade stand to raise money for her friend in need. This charitable action inspires other children to help the cause , a trend that continues until the book concludes with a paddle-race that gets the whole town involved with the philanthropy.
According to Reichert "A goal of The Lemonade Ripple is to engage kids in philanthropy and inspire them at an early age to find easy, creative, and, most importantly, fun ways to better their own communities." The book's message shares a connection with the mission of the Foundation for Community Betterment, a charitable organization that his wife Jennifer and several friends began ten years ago. Yet the connection runs deeper than the story itself, because in accord with the moral of the story, 100% of the proceeds generated by the book will go to the Foundation for Community Betterment.
"It's gratifying to finally see the book in print, to know that it's supporting a good cause, and that hopefully it will help inspire the next generation of philanthropists," said Reichert. The book is on sale now at http://lemonaderipple.com/ as well as amazon.com. More of Reichert's artwork can be seen at http://paulreichert.net/ and additional information about the Foundation for Community Betterment can be found at http://www.communitybetterment.org/.
There will be a book launch and signing on July 24 at the 10th annual Betterment Paddle on the St. Lawrence River.
