Life gave Eliza and Adela Andrews lemons for selling lemonade.
Life in this case, however, was the National Capital Commission, the government agency that manages federally-owned lands in Ottawa and Gatineau, Que.
On July 3, the two Ottawa sisters were told they had to shut down a lemonade stand they had set up to raise cash to go to summer camp. An agency officer told them they needed a permit to sell on NCC property.
But now the sisters are back in business. CBC News reports the Andrews sisters have received a permit and are donating all funds raised to Camp Quality, a charitable group that provides kids with cancer free camping experiences.
"We like going to camp," Eliza told the broadcaster. "The kids that have cancer, they need help so we decided to raise money for that."
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson was one of the customers at the now-officially-allowed-to-exist lemonade stand, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
"The mayor dropped a 20 (dollar bill)," the girls' dad Kurtis told the paper.
Former Tory cabinet minister Pierre Poilievre weighed in on a kids' lemonade stand shut down by the National Capital Commission. (Photo: The Canadian Press/Jupiter Images)
The NCC apologized to the girls' family after it shut down the stand. It says the junior conservation officer who saw the stand acted in good faith in enforcing federal land use rules. The agency also offered to help the girls reach their summer camp fund raising goal.
The decision to stop lemonade sales led to a wave of outrage online and off. Tory MP Pierre Poilievre and Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier called it out as an example of how government can stifle entrepreneurship.
"We might as well teach our children that if they ever start a business, some busybody bureaucrats will stand in the way," Poilievre said.
"BIG GOVERNMENT won't let those two young and entrepreneurial girls sell their lemonade," Bernier wrote on Facebook.
The rebirth of the lemonade stand isn't the only good news to come out from the story. A donor in B.C. donated $1,500 to Camp Quality after hearing about the girls' ordeal, according to the Citizen.
With files from Ryan Maloney and The Canadian Press
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