Avigayil Wardein, 6, answers questions during an interview with
staff from a national late night talk show on Friday afternoon at
her home in Naples.
Posted on 06/21/2003 10:41:21 AM PDT by johnwayne
Forget about the Gulf of Mexico. Who cares about the breathtaking sunsets. Never mind the romantic lure of the Naples Pier.
Something sour has put Naples on the map.
Media from all over the United States have swarmed to now-famous Avigayil Wardein — a brown-haired, 6-year-old who just lost two front baby teeth.
Naples police busted Avigayil on June 13 for selling lemonade without a city permit. The story filtered through the news wires and quickly became a topic on CNN, MSNBC and Fox news networks, as well as the "Today" show and "Inside Edition."
Avigayil Wardein, 6, answers questions during an interview with staff from a national late night talk show on Friday afternoon at her home in Naples. Wardein runs a lemonade stand with her friends, Alysa Donnella, 6, and Austin Dremann-Pease, 9, and her brother, Lucas, 8, but was forced to stop selling lemonade and cookies at the end of her driveway last week after a neighbor complained. Lisa Krantz/Staff
Rush Limbaugh is talking about it. More than 60 radio stations from across the country have called Avigayil's mom, KC Shaw. On Friday, she talked with producers from the "Late Show" with David Letterman and "The Tonight Show," hosted by Jay Leno.
It was only nine days ago that Avigayil was known to passers-by as the cute girl who sells plastic cups of lemonade for 50 cents in front of her Old Naples house. Today, she's known as the Naples lemonade gal who has the whole country rooting for her and her ambitious little lemonade stand.
It turns out not many folks knew someone needs a city permit to operate a lemonade stand. Even Naples Mayor Bonnie MacKenzie bought lemonade from the small setup before Avigayil was forced to close it.
"I've been a customer of hers more than once," MacKenzie said. "That means I've aided and abetted. You know what, I'm not one bit sorry. It's good lemonade."
On June 13, Naples police responded to a complaint from an anonymous neighbor who grumbled about the permit-less lemonade stand on the corner of Sixth Street and 11th Avenue South.
Although the Naples police officer who answered the call was only doing his job, he felt so bad he bought a cup of lemonade. City officials shook their heads in shame. So they waived the permit fee, which was $35.
After a temporary shutdown, the city allowed the business entrepreneur to reopen.
Avigayil will lug the white plastic table and two gallons of fresh lemonade to the edge of the driveway today at 613 11th Avenue S., where her table is usually crowded with construction workers, landscapers and beachgoers with dry throats and sweaty clothes.
Phone calls from media, strangers and old friends have flooded the Shaw house, which the family might leave sometime soon to appear on national late night talk shows in Los Angeles and New York.
While sipping on a glass of cold lemonade, Shaw said Friday that she has had phone calls from people offering to pay for the permit and wanting to donate money to Avigayil. She's had so many offers, in fact, that she has set up an account called the Lemonade Girl College Fund at Orion Bank at 3838 U.S. 41 N.
Many of the other calls have been from people angry with the neighbor, whom the family believes complained about the stand. The caller didn't reveal her name to police, so it isn't confirmed that the neighbor is the woman who placed the call.
Shaw's neighbor has been unavailable for comment despite repeated attempts to reach her this week. The neighbor called police Friday morning to complain that the media had set up in front of her house and kept knocking on her door.
Phone calls also have flooded Naples City Hall, where staffers have listened to callers either praising the city for waiving the permit fee or criticizing the police for responding to the call.
"One guy was yelling, 'are you proud of what the nation thinks of your city?'" city staffer Michael Moose said. "It's pretty bizarre."
Naples police Chief Steven Moore said the city police department has received several calls, including one at 4 a.m. Friday from a man asking if officers had anything better to do than to shut down a lemonade stand. Others called irate, claiming they heard the police took Avigayil to jail.
"It's taken on a life of its own," Moore said with a smile.
But Avigayil doesn't seem to realize it.
She's still a normal 6-year-old who wants to spend what little money she has on candy, art supplies and dresses she can wear when she practices her ice skating moves. She likes to show off her fingernail polish — blue on one hand and purple on the other — as she fills the plastic cups with her mother's homemade lemonade.
Avigayil says she's famous. But she doesn't realize how many people know about her. She bases fame on how many coins and dollar bills are in her tip jar — a glass vase with a sign taped across it letting customers know spare change can be tossed inside.
Since news of the lemonade stand began spreading earlier this week, she expects to be "famous" for a long time.
"It makes you get lots and lots of money," Avigayil said, while holding her tip jar. "It's really fun."
As soon as you start a business, hands come out of all sorts of places. Taxes, pensions, sexual harassment posters, overtime policies, you name it -- and you don't need many employees for these laws to apply (think domestic employee). Its a disincentive to grow from a small business to a medium size business--regulation definitely cuts into your profits.
Back in the day in old England they had a fellow who, with the help of his merry men, would take money from one man to give to another. Although it seemed a noble gesture, it was still considered stealing!
Today in America, we have the same thing, but we call it Congress.
I'm bettin' big that this shrew is a socialist liberal who defends abortion, and wishes the little girl's mother had done the deed.
Get a grip.
This is Instant Karma to the Nth degree!
BuWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
i'm betting he is someone who had a garage sale who didn't get the required permit and wanted to get revenge by forcing city to impose its rules on the lemonade stand.
Well said. This is the thing that explains the bad economy. The "Government" at every level is now so pervasive, that nothing can grow without being squashed.
In this sort of enviroment, you go home, experiment with a solar cell, and grow vegetables to eat.
Why "work" with "purpose" when all your income - or any future income you may be luicky enough to make before the "find you" - is spoken for in advance, and you have to play "mother may I" with uneducated idiots and time servers all day?
Anonymous? Why anonymous? Do we not have the right to know the identity of our accusors? Are not police complaints matters of public record? I understand the necessity of anonymity in a tip leading to an arrest in the matter of a violent crime, but this was a municipal licensing issue.
Perhaps one of the local TV stations will request a copy of the police complaint under the Freedom of Information Act. For better or worse, the little girl (who in this case is the victim, I would submit) has had her name and image published locally and nationally. I'd like to see what kind of lowlife makes complaints about six-year-old girls and their lemonade stands. At the very least, this SOB (or DOB, as the case may be) should be held up to public ridicule. And it wouldn't hurt to check the status of the accuser with respect to any business or personal licenses or permits he or she should have (dog licenses, sales licenses, etc.) as well as making a determination of his or her standing with the local property tax department, public utility department, and the public library's overdue book department.
Phone records. The newspaper should subpeona them, and publish the name of the person who filed the complaint.
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