5-year-old girl takes on Westboro with lemonade stand
A 5-year-old girl who set up a lemonade stand across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., on Friday raised more than $1,000 in the name of peace.
Jayden Sink, with more than a little help from her father, Jon, sold "Pink Lemonade for Peace" from her stand outside the Equality House, a rainbow-painted building across the street from the controversial church's headquarters on Friday. According to Jon, his daughter got more than $170 in cash and more than $10,000 in online donations through Crowdrise. The money went to Planting Peace, a nonprofit that owns the Equality House.
Supporters of the Westboro Baptist Church—which has become infamous for its homophobic protests at soldiers' funerals—reportedly hurled insults at the pair and their customers, including more than a dozen active soldiers from the nearby Fort Riley military base who arrived at the lemonade stand on motorcycles.
"They hung out for quite a while and definitely showed their support," Jon Sink wrote in a blog post.
According to Aaron Jackson, co-founder of Planting Peace and owner of the Equality House, Westboro members "were standing in the front yard ... and were visibly aggravated."
On Sunday, Westboro Baptist Church tweeted: “*WHO* let nasty f--s get hands on this poor child? #danger."
On Monday, they mocked Sink in another tweet:
Thinking of Jayden, her Kool-Aid & “God H8s Fags” racing round the world on @HuffPostGay’s back … We get this image … pic.twitter.com/xVaYLMxSf5
— Westboro Baptist (@WBCSays) June 17, 2013
The Sinks were undeterred.
"Jayden is promoting LOVE and PEACE," the Equality House tweeted on Sunday. "A little lemonade goes a long way. The world could use a little more sweetness."
