8-year-old girl's lemonade stand raises thousands for Big Lake family after tragic fire

BIG LAKE, Minn. (FOX 9) - A young girl’s actions are making a meaningful impact on a Big Lake family going through an unimaginable loss.

When Serenity Boike’s friend lost her home and some of her family members in a house fire, she wanted to find a way to help.

So far, Serenity has raised over $3,500 through homemade bracelet sales and lemonade stands and this 8-year-old isn’t done helping her young friend’s family.

It started as a summer lemonade stand and now it’s grown into something much bigger as donations began arriving in the mail.

Boike is just 8, but she’ll never forget the day she learned of a deadly fire at her friend’s house in April.

“I felt really, really sad and I was scared that, like, their house burnt down. Are they all OK? Are they hurt? I was so scared about it,” she said.

Two of the four children in the home survived, but the youngest two did not.

Investigators believe their father set the fire on purpose. He later died from his injuries.

“I think everyone was kind of in shock over it,” said Cassie Boike, Serenity’s mother.

Cassie said her daughter wanted to raise money to help her friend and arranged a lemonade stand last month complete with treats and bracelets. It started small, but that didn’t last long.

“I posted on Facebook what she was doing, why she was doing it and all of a sudden people started showing up left and right,” Cassie added.

Serenity’s $500 goal was met and exceeded. Now, there’s a benefit to raise more.

“This is just her nature,” Cassie said. “So, it doesn’t surprise me she does it.”

All the attention hasn’t phased her one bit. Serenity’s focus is on helping her friend.

The benefit for the family is planned on Aug. 10 at KJ’s Refuge in Big Lake. It will be from 2-6 p.m.

All the money raised will go to the surviving children and their mother.