The David-vs-Goliath saga of the banned lemonade stand that defied town hall and survived to tell the tale.

Who hasn't operated--or wanted to operate--a lemonade stand?   

If you didn't hear about it before now, you'll want to pay attention, for this story has all the human interest and drama one little event can generate.  Indeed, it is an all-American tale of manifest enterprise threatened by a big bureaucracy that bullies little kids who were only trying to exercise their own version of the all-American capitalist dream: start small, act with purpose, address a human need, and profit handsomely in the process. 

It's a terrific come-from-behind success story.  

About 10 days ago some kids in suburban Maryland set up a lemonade stand at a busy intersection near the PGA's US Open golf tournament at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD.  They were visited almost immediately by Montgomery County health officials and were asked to take the stand down for lack of a permit.  

When the fledgling entrepreneurs didn't comply by the time a second visit was made, the parents--families with the last name of Marriott and Augustine--ended up with a $500 fine to pay for the reckless disregard the young children were showing by failing to get a health permit to operate the stand.  What's more, the kids were pledging to donate half of their profits to charity!

Enter the television coverage.  

You need to appreciate the setting in which the story unfolded: adults all around them were seeking to profit as well from the circumstances, mostly by charging visitors to the event for individual parking spaces--which were also located on private property--their own!  For this, the parking entrepreneurs had to have secured a permit costing $300.  

What follows is one of [and this is an important word that immediately follows] many instances of news coverage that highlighted the plight of the young entrepreneurs...

As you might guess, the public out-cry for the plight of the young lemonade entrepreneurs was considerable--and almost immediately led to Montgomery County waiving the fine--and letting the lemonade stand stand, but in a less-traffic area.  

So, the story fades to a close with private enterprise still alive and well in America--but not without a little help from supportive from parents as well as a public that shamed those who would seek to stamp it out.  But questions still remain:  Was it a health issue or a traffic matter?  Are daughters and sons of wealthy families not to be enterprising? Was the original $500 fine okay if it meant well-off parents could pay it?  

From my perspective, high marks to these parents for raising children with this ambition as well as who were also prepared to speak up for their enterprising off-spring to the authorities--even in front of television cameras.  

Maybe because I ran a now-and-then fruit and vegetable stand in tough East Los Angeles when I was 8 years old that I have particular sympathy with the children in this story. Maybe it was because my dad stood up for me and free enterprise when my fruit and vegetable stand business was threatened by the authorities who wanted to put me out of business. May it's just because now I'm a grown-up biz school prof who thinks more of these kinds of stories need to be told that I think this is a cool saga--and points to evidence that free enterprise is still alive and well--but not without some threats--in suburban Maryland! 
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