Two children with local ties took a time-honored tradition and turned it on its side, then did a very good deed.
One weekend this past summer, seven-year-old Ruby Cambra and eight-year-old Emma Grace Daniel went into business together at the end of a Rochester driveway but not to sell lemonade.
Ruby, a New Hampshire resident whose grandparents Mike and Ann Cambra live on Clapp Road, had become fast friends with Emma, the daughter of Andrew and Nichole Daniel of Marion. The two children even learned that they are distantly related, so when Ruby would make her monthly weekend visits to her grandparents’ home, Emma was not far away.
Ruby had just received various flavors of boba tea, the trendy (and expensive) drink made from tapioca pearls. Colorful and fruit flavored, Ruby and Emma soon put those pearls to work at the end of the Cambras’ driveway.
Their boba tea business was doing well when Nichole went on Facebook to invite people to stop by and try out the kids’ concoctions. Soon thereafter, cars parked on Clapp Road, and visitors were educating them in the ways of boba tea.
They charged only a dollar – boba tea retail prices typically range between $3 and $7 – and the response was overwhelming, as their two-day business venture yielded approximately $250.
But that’s only the beginning of the story.
The many people who stopped by the Clapp Road driveway to try the boba tea, left tips totaling $102 that Ruby and Emma donated last week to the Fairhaven Animal Shelter.
In a grateful gesture for their generosity, Fairhaven Animal Control Officer Terry Cripps gave the girls a tour of the facility, where they held kittens – Ruby’s favorite and dogs – Emma’s favorite. Cripps explained to them how those funds would be used for food, towards the costs of veterinarians’ visits and many other expenses.
“Nichole put it on Facebook, people just came,” said Ann Cambra. “Bringing the tips was the (children’s) idea. I called the Fairhaven Animal Shelter, Terry was just a wonderful guy. He said, ‘I’ll show them around and show them what a hundred dollars does.’”
“They were so excited to come to the Animal Shelter and have a tour and just see all the animals and play with all the animals,” said Assistant Animal Control Officer Abigail Griffith. “As soon as you walk in … there’s the cat rooms and small animals in cages in the hallway. Their eyes just lit up, they ran over to them.”
Run by Cripps and Griffith, two officers in Fairhaven’s Police Department, the Samuel C. Barrett Animal Shelter is the town’s municipal, open-door shelter and works with neighboring public and private shelters such as All about the Animals in Rochester. The Barrett Animal Shelter is open Tuesday-Saturday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm not only by appointment, but visitors are encouraged.
Beyond Cripps and Griffith, the shelter is supported entirely by volunteer help and donations.
“We love having visitors come see the animals … the more socialization for the animals the better. The more word gets around, and the faster they get adopted,” Griffith said. “We’ve seen an increase in kids having lemonade stands and asking for donations for their birthdays. It gives us hope for the future that these kids care about the community and want to help the animals … it warms your heart.”
By Mick Colageo