Colton Santos, an 8-year-old player on the Central Coast Crushers baseball team, had his equipment, uniforms and apparel stolen from a car break-in in Fresno this month. His teammates decided to step up and help Santos by starting a lemonade stand.
What started as a fundraiser to buy Colton a new baseball bat quickly turned into the community rallying around Colton’s cause. At the corner of Rolling Hills Drive in Paso Robles, the Central Coast Crushers baseball team were set up with posters and “mediocre” lemonade.
When a community member posted the event on the “Protect Paso” Facebook page, their lemonade stand’s efforts quickly went viral on the Internet. The Paso Robles community ended up making donations of $20 and $50 to their lemonade stand.
In one day, the boys raised $770 to help buy Colton new baseball equipment.
But the generosity of others did not stop there. The Central Coast Crushers Baseball Organization went on to partner with Warstic Sports, Inc., a sports equipment company owned by former MLB player Ian Kinsler and musician Jack White from the White Stripes.
When Warstic found out about the lemonade stand, they also made a generous donation to replace Santos’ equipment. The funds raised at the lemonade stand, donations from Warstic Sports, and contributions from local families totaled $2,513.
Now, the Crushers have raised enough money to replace all of Santos' equipment, uniforms and apparel. Teammates Brem Schoenthal, Derrick Border, Delaney Border, Tristan and Blake Norico want to thank the community and the Warstic Sports for their help in making their lemonade stand become a huge success!
Santos will be receiving all of his new equipment and apparel this weekend.
