SAANICH, B.C. — After months of asking his mom if he could set up a stand at the end of their driveway, and her saying it was too cold, Anders Yee finally got the go-ahead to start selling lemonade, with a twist. “I want to help people,” Anders says. Rather than expressing some sort of entrepreneurial spirit, the eight-year-old is wanting to give back. “He goes, ‘I want to raise money for charity,” his mom Susanna Yee recalls. Susanna says her son has benefited from the Canucks Autism Network because he’s on the spectrum, and the Victoria Hospitals Foundation because he was born seven weeks premature and spent 35 days in the NICU. “They are the greatest supporters there,” Susanna says. “There’s just not enough money to give back.” After selling lemonade for three hours over spring break, and donating more than $21 to the charities, Anders asked his mom if he could try to raise even more money for the hospitals foundation with his lemonade stand in the summer. “Because I want to save a life,” Anders says. You see, this week marks a year since Anders witnessed the loss of his dad after suffering a brain aneurysm. “It’s been traumatic,” Susanna says. “But I thought doing a stand in memory of his dad is [part of] the healing process.” Susanna says her husband Kevin Yee was always giving to others, and supporting their boy’s inherent desire to be generous is a way to keep that legacy alive. “We all go through a grieving period,” Susanna says, fighting back tears. “But at the same time you have to continue to live.” And moving forward for this little boy is giving back in the biggest way he knows how. “Wow!” Anders says, pulling out a fistful of cash from the jar on his lemonade stand. “That’s unexpected!” Anders ended up raising $900 for the Victoria Hospitals Foundation. “I know my husband is looking down and he’s smiling,” Susanna says through tears. “He’s looking down on us and saying, ‘Good job.’”
