We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jess Obert. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jess below.
Jess, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
Back in the summer of 2018, our six-year-old daughter, Payton, told us that she wanted to host a lemonade stand in our driveway. After adding it to her summer bucket list, we knew we had to make sure it happened. She made a trip with her dad up to the local hardware store to get some lumber to build her stand. She knew just what she wanted it to look like. We challenged her to donate the proceeds and think about where she wanted them to go. When Payton was a young child, she had an unexpected admission to our local children’s hospital. While there, she was gifted a special teddy bear. This is a bear that provided great comfort to her and brought her happiness at a time that was scary for her. Upon reflecting on this, she decided she wanted to gift other kids with a special toy in hopes that it would provide them with the same comfort and happiness as her teddy bear provided her. To our surprise, she raised just shy of $800 at her first stand! We were able to provide so many kids in need with comfort items! When the event wrapped up and the gifts had been delivered, I thought we were done. In hindsight, I realize it was all just beginning.
The following summer, Payton was adamant that she host another stand. She challenged herself to raise even more. She set up her stand in our driveway once again on a hot July day and raised $7,000! We were blown away by the generosity of the community and had a feeling this might be turning into something bigger. At this point, news of her stand started hitting the airwaves and families started reaching out to us wanting to get involved. The following summer, we had 9 different lemonade stands participating in the 3rd Annual Payton’s Lemonade Stand. We even had a sponsor – Dwyer Insurance! Together, we raised $35,000! We were growing and growing fast, almost faster than we could keep up with. It was at this point, where I started to wonder how I would continue to do this in addition to my full-time job at CCHMC.
By our 4th year, we had transitioned into a 501(c)(3) and grew even bigger! We had 29 stands all over Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky, and Eastern Indiana. More companies had come onboard as sponsors and every local news channel was covering our story. That year, we raised $60,000 for kids facing medical, personal, and economic hardships. We continued to grow and there were no signs of slowing down. With this continued growth, I had found myself at a crossroads. The non-profit was starting to take up a lot of my time, more time than I had since I was working full time at CCHMC. I had a tough decision to make. Do I stay with a stable career or do I step out of my comfort zone, take a leap of faith, and work hard to continue to grow our nonprofit?
After a lot of prayer and a lot of discussion with family, friends and mentors, I decided to step away from my 14-year career at CCHMC and focus solely on Payton’s Lemonade Stand. I knew that if I could pour my heart and soul into it, that I could help it grow even more. And boy has it grown. We had our 5th Annual Payton’s Lemonade Stand last summer and we had our biggest turnout yet. We had 50 hosts including Fire Departments, baseball/soccer teams, girl scout troops, dance teams, local businesses and kids in the driveways all participating. We also had more sponsors than ever. Together, we raised over $85,000! We even made national news!
Now, we’re busy preparing for our 6th Annual Payton’s Lemonade Stand taking place on Saturday, July 29th. We’ll have 70(!!!) stands all throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana! We’ll even have a stand in Texas and Florida! It’s looking to be our biggest event to date and we can’t wait!
What started as one lemonade stand in our driveway in the summer of 2018 has now grown into a lemonade empire raising hundreds of thousands of dollars all year round to help sweeten the lives of kids facing medical, personal, and economic hardships and I truly feel I’m doing the work I was put on this earth to do. I’m so glad I took the risk!
Jess, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am the Executive Director of Payton’s Lemonade Stand. Payton, our founder, is my daughter. I stepped away from my 14 year career to help Payton carry out her vision. We aim to sweeten the lives of kids facing medical, personal, and economic hardships. We also strive to empower our next generation of philanthropists through the hosting of their own lemonade stand. We want them to experience the true joy in giving back.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I once read a book called, Everything is Figureoutable. It’s a book I think about every single day simply because it’s true! I used to think I didn’t have the capability to face challenging tasks . However, upon starting our own nonprofit, I’ve stumbled upon plenty of challenges and one thing I have always kept in mind is everything is figureoutable. It might take time and it might take tapping into your resources, but in the end, everything is figureoutable and I”m so grateful for that advice.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
We were planning a fundraiser when covid hit. Fun times! We weren’t even sure if we would be able to pull it off. But I fell back on the advice I was given via a book I read – everything is figureoutable. And that’s just what we did. We put plexiglass on the stands, had lemon masks made for each host and had printed lemons and placed them on the ground to promote social distancing. It was wildly successful as we made 5 times the amount we made the year prior!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://paytonslemonadestand.org
- Instagram: @paytonslemonadestand
- Facebook: @paytonslemonadestand
- Twitter: @paytonslemonade
Image Credits
Loft 3 Photography