unity The Lemonade Project

Remember the old saying, “When you are offered lemons, make lemonade.” The Nazi rally scheduled for July 3, 2006 in Olympia was the lemons. Our community turned this into lemonade – an opportunity to raise money for organizations that serve the kinds of people that Nazis abuse.
 
The Lemonade Project invited individuals and organizations to pledge some amount of money – depending on how long the Nazis maintained a public presence here on July 3rd.

We divided the proceeds equally among five organizations that serve Jews, African-Americans, immigrants, young GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) folks, and at-risk youths: Tikkun Olam (Repair of the World) Committee of Temple Beth Hatfiloh, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), The  Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Stonewall Youth, and Community Youth Services.

Making Lemonade

 [Click the photo for larger image.]

Tying this fundraising to the length of the Nazi rally put pressure on the them to keep their public presence short because they knew that the public’s generosity in supporting human rights would far outweigh the value of their rally. (In some communities with vigorous Lemonade Projects, the hate groups have canceled their events in order to avoid generating a lot of funding for human rights organizations.)

Thank you to all who supported The Lemonade Project and made it such a success!

Sponsored by the Olympia Fellowship of Reconciliation, Interfaith Works of Thurston County, and Olympia Unity in the Community.


Olympia Unity in the Community
http://www.olympiaunityinthecommunity.net