CityView Magazine

38 June 2022 Lanning Kistler's lemonade stand was rebranded as Lanning's Lemonade & Colton's Cookies after his dad, John Kistler, married Jennifer Walters, Colton's mother, in 2019. Kids helping kids Family works together on lemonade and cookie sale to benefit children's causes BY JASON BRADY | PHOTOGRAPHY BY TONY WOOTEN N ine-year-old Lanning Kistler likes helping children in need. So does his 8-year-old brother, Colton Walters. Together, they have teamed up for an annual daylong fundraiser for charitable causes that benefit other children. It started four years ago, just before Lanning's father, Army Capt. John Kistler, deployed to Iraq. Lanning asked if he could open a lemonade stand outside their Vanstory Hills home. He asked his father if they could donate the money from lemonade sales to a cause that would benefit other children. John Kistler agreed and helped Lanning open his first lemonade stand. ey restaurant on Glensford Drive. And Colton added his cookies. at year's earnings went to the Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina. Every penny earned goes to their chosen charity. "No money is taken out for expenses or supplies," John says. As with many other facets of life, the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily put a halt to the brothers' lemonade-and-cookies venture in 2020. When they resumed sales in 2021, they wanted to keep the giving centered on something that benefits children, John says. e new organization that received $2,575 was the Child Advocacy Center on Rowan Street. "I like raising as much money as we can for the Child Advocacy Center and helping other kids in Fayetteville," Lanning says. Colton says the secret of his cookies is the chocolate chips — both brown and white chocolate — and lots of them. And M&M candy. Colton says his cookies are delicious chose Missions of Hope International, an organization dedicated to building schools in Kenya, as the beneficiary. at first year, Lanning earned $473 for his charity. Success breeds success, and Lanning wanted to do it again. e next year, in 2019, he almost tripled his revenue to $1,210. But he had help. e Kistlers that year became a blended family when John married Jennifer Walters. Her son is Colton. e team was complete, and the lemonade stand was rebranded as Lanning's Lemonade & Colton's Cookies. e two entrepreneurs made T-shirts sporting their logo and created a Facebook page. Jennifer added her food expertise, honed by her ownership of the Firehouse Subs FEATURE

• Cover