|
Local youth raises money for
Central Illinois Veterans Commission
[August 28, 2025]
On Tuesday evening Emmary
Greenlund, her mom Lauren and for a short while her grandma Marsha
Fernandes, were greeting folks traveling along their street and also
along Fifth Street Road with an offering of cookies and lemonade.
The sale of those items went directly to the Central Illinois
Veterans Commission.
Emmary, aka Emmy, is ten years old,
the daughter of Cole and Lauren Grenlund, and she has literally been
hearing great things about the Central Illinois Veterans Commission
and the Veteran Tiny Home projects for nearly half of her life. The
CIVC broke ground on the first tiny home in Logan County in April of
2021 when Emmy would have been about six years old.
She's heard plenty about this important community project because
her grandma Marsha Fernandes had been on the ground floor of this
CIVC’s formation alongside Joe Schaler. Marsha has been deeply
involved with the program since then and Emmy has heard grandma talk
about how important the project is to local veterans. Since that
time, the CIVC which began in partnership with a program called 2 by
4’s of Hope, has built five homes in Lincoln and two in Atlanta.
Asked why she decided to do the fundraiser, Emmy said that she
thought the snack stand would be fun, but she felt that the CIVC
needed the money more than she did, so she decided to give the money
to the next home project.
Grandma Marsha said that when Emmy told her what she wanted to do,
it touched her deeply not just because she was developing a love for
helping veterans, but because she was developing a sense of
community service. She said it is important for young people to want
to be involved so that work of organizations such as CIVC and many
others in the county will continue.
[to top of second column] |
When the stand opened, the first
customer was Lincoln Daily News, but within minutes neighbors from
across the street popped over and in another minute or two a car
stopped by.
The Grenlund’s live on
Westminster just off Fifth Street Road. Their home however is not
visible from Fifth Street, so Emmy and her mom went to Dave and
Carla Bender who live right on the edge of Fifth Street and asked
permission to set up in their front yard. Emmy said that the Benders
were happy to help by offering their yard and giving her
encouragement.
After the event was over on Tuesday evening, a proud grandma sent
Lincoln Daily News a message about how it all turned out.
When it was time to take down the stand there were still cookies and
lemonade left over. Emmy convinced her mom to get the golf cart out
and take her door to door throughout the neighborhood inviting
people to purchase a snack for CIVC, or simply drop a donation in
the CIVC bucket she carried along with her.
By the end of the adventure, Emmy had raised $330 for CIVC.
Emmy’s mom, Lauren, said that her daughter is going to continue
collecting donations for CIVC until the group hosts its fall
fundraiser on October 25th at the Lincoln Banquet Center. That
fundraiser will be a Halloween Bash with live and silent auctions
and live entertainment offered by the very popular Harmony Grits.
For details about that fundraiser visit the CIVC website.
[Nila Smith]
|
