When a loved one is ill, watching them suffer can make you feel helpless—especially when you’re a kid.

It can also make you determined to help.

Enter 8-year-old Sydney Youngberg and her 10-year-old sister, Rylee, who started a lemonade stand to raise money to visit their father, Michael Youngberg, who is getting cancer treatment at University of Minnesota Medical Center in Fairview.

“We can’t afford to be out there as a family,” the girls' mom, Jen Youngberg, told Capital Journal, “so they’re trying to raise money so they can go out and visit Dad.”

After being cancer-free for 12 years, Youngberg was diagnosed with a brain tumor on June 3. One month later, the girls put their plan to sell lemonade for him into action.

Its not every day a neighborhood lemonade stand raises $6000 (if it did, I’d be whipping up a batch right now) but, thanks to the generous residents in Pierre, South Dakota, that’s exactly how much the girls raised.

And it’s more than enough to help pay for the family's trips to Minneapolis for Mike's cancer treatment, according to Jen.

Looks like their determination paid off.

What do you think of Sydney and Rylee’s incredible idea? Have you ever been inspired to do something similar to help loved ones?

-Katharine Watts, Associate Web Editor

Related:
• 10 ways to help a friend who has cancer
• How you can help end cancer
• How cancer fundraisers really help