JACKSON, Mich. — 8-year-old Faith watched the news one night and learned about four people who died at the Faster Horses Music Festival.
“She couldn’t sleep," says Kayla Murdock, Faith's mother. "She was just thinking about how sad their parents were.”
That night, Faith found inspiration in a dream. She dreamt she held a lemonade stand, and when she woke up in the middle of the night, she grabbed her mom's phone and shared that dream with the world.
“I put it on Facebook," Faith said, "and accidentally put it in a group.”
Turns out, her post got noticed pretty quickly, saying she wanted to donate to the families of the four who died at the festival.
“I woke up to people talking about a lemonade stand or helping me with a lemonade stand," Kayla says. "I thought that I made a status in my sleep or that I was dreaming.”
But she wasn't dreaming, and with an outpouring of support, Kayla and Faith scrambled to set up a lemonade stand to help the families. The first donations came from Faith herself.
“I had $28 in my piggy bank, so I decided to donate all that $28," Faith says, "but I was saving up for a skateboard.”
Word spread fast, and the day of their first lemonade stand, cars were lined up around the corner. In the first day, Faith raised $189. Lemonades only cost a dollar, but people gave much more. One person made a trip to Jackson from Grand Rapids, donating $250. Another $100 donation came in from Texas, which the family used to stock back up on lemonade and snacks.
And some donations were meant for Faith herself.
"I have five skateboards now,” she says.
And after four days, Faith had raised $1,008. All that money goes directly to the families who lost loved ones at the Faster Horses Music Festival, specifically through GoFundMe pages that can be found here.
The Murdocks have met some of those families, including Dawson Brown’s mother, who spent a few hours helping Faith run the lemonade stand.
“She says that Faith feels like a new family member," says Kayla. "They were brought together for a reason.”
Faith says it's all about spreading good to others.
“My parents said why did you do it," Faith recalled. "So I said one good deed starts a chain reaction.”
Faith hosted another lemonade stand Sunday afternoon, and plans to keep raising money for other causes – the next two are creating a butterfly garden, and filling backpacks with school supplies for her classmates that don’t have them.
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