It was a simple lemonade stand, something many other children had done before. But what happened to her was something no one expected.
Lake County Sheriff’s Deputy went above and beyond after buying some lemonade from a 9-year-old girl’s lemonade stand.
Deputy Zach Ropos had been on patrol in Painesville, Ohio when he saw Gabrielle’s lemonade stand. Ropos, 22, said he saw Gabrielle run up to his car and hand him a glass of lemonade – Ropos gave her a few dollars.
“She hands me a glass, I hand her a few bucks. I asked her what she wanted to do with the money… She said she’d get an iPad, to help with school and play games,” Ropos said in an interview with ABC News.
When Ropos asked her what she was going to do with all the money she made, Gabrielle said she was saving up for an iPad (for both school and for play).
Gabrielle said that her mother had run out of money for gas, so she had used the money earned from the lemonade stand to support her mother.
Ropos had an old iPad at home and decided to give it to Gabrielle, but when he went home, the iPad didn’t work very well anymore.
The next day, he hunted down a store that would split the cost of a new tablet for the little girl. Later in the afternoon, he went back to Gabrielle’s lemonade stand and presented her with the gift.
“I talked to the little girl, gave her a speech about how courageous and admirable I think her efforts were to save up her money,” Ropos said.
“I talked to the little girl, gave her a speech about how courageous and admirable I think her efforts were to save up her money. I asked her how much she saved up, and she said she only had a few dollars,” Ropos said.
“She just wouldn’t stop hugging me,” Ropos said. “Seeing her face is how I remember Christmas when I was 5 years old. She couldn’t stop smiling. Her smile was worth a million dollars.”
Readers shared their thoughts on the touching story on Facebook.
“Outstanding compassion by this dedicated officer, more of these thoughtful stories should be circulated, well done,” one reader commented.
“May God Bless this Officer for being so kind to this little girl,” another user wrote. “Thank you for Officer Ropos service in the police department.”
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