An iconic summer tradition, the neighborhood lemonade stand, brought four young neighbors together several years ago for an afternoon of fun and entrepreneurship.

This year, those same neighbors, now in middle school, have used their skills to collect nearly $800 for the Cranston Animal Shelter. Mia and Julia Wasilewski, both 13, along with their neighbors Aidan Welch, 13, and Riley Welch, 11, recently delivered $750 in pet food and supplies to the shelter.

“Three years ago we were doing a lemonade stand, and we were getting some money,” Aidan said. “We were getting some money from the sales, and we didn’t know what to do with it.”

As four animal lovers, the crew decided to put their money towards the local shelter and its needs in order to help the animals there.

“We were all talking about it, and we knew we wanted to do something with animals,” Julia said.

Between the four of them, their love of animals is evident. The group members have had pets over the years, some having just been adopted recently from shelters themselves, including a rabbit, a turtle, some fish, a kitten, a guinea pig, a bearded dragon, and a dog.

“We came up with the idea of donating to the Cranston Animal Shelter,” Riley said. “Getting our own pets from a shelter encouraged us more to raise money for a shelter.”

That very first year’s lemonade stand brought in $160. The second year, the group saw a steady increase and raised $230. This summer, however, they raised nearly $800 and coupled it with a pet supply drive as well. The secret to their success was moving their fundraiser to a local business, Shaw’s Market, and posting on the group’s Instagram account, “Refuse_the_abuse,” which they named in honor of their mission to help stop animal abuse. The four donned purple T-shirts, which is the color of animal abuse awareness.

“We raised $391 that day,” Aidan said. “We didn’t think we’d bring in so much money. People were donating ones, fives, 10s, and a couple of people donated $20.”

When all of those smaller bills were added up, the group was stunned that they had collected so much money.

“We had to count three times,” Mia said.

Once the money had been collected, it was time to go shopping. The four visited the animal shelter first to see what specific needs there were and used a wish list that was posted online to guide their purchases.

“We were very happy we had raised so much money because there were a lot of things that were needed, and there were specific mats for the bottoms of the dogs’ cages to keep them warm in the wintertime that are very expensive,” Aidan said.

They were able to get some of the mats at one local Walmart, buying out their stock, and the rest of them at a second Walmart location.

“We spent about $200 just on the mats alone,” Riley said.

With their dads keeping count on their phones, the group was able to spend wisely and keep track of what they were getting.

“We got as much as we could,” Julia said. “We made two trips to the car to fill them up before we were done.”

The shopping and delivery was done on the same day, with one exhausted group of shoppers making their drop-off just before the shelter’s closing time.

As the four middle-schoolers await the start and excitement of the upcoming school year, their wheels are already turning as they plan ahead for their fourth fundraiser next summer.

They have set a goal to raise at least $800.

“We might try a couple of new things and see what works well in the future,” Riley said.

For more information about the Cranston Animal Shelter, and to view the wish list of needed pet supplies, visit awos.petfinder.com/shelters/cranstonanimalshelter.html.