Young Girl Denied Permit For Lemonade Stand To Help Tsunami Victims

[matcom]

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- All 10-year-old Carolyn Lipsick wanted to do was help some kids in a far away place where there was a tsunami, because, she says, "you can't just think of yourself, you have to think of other people."

She had several ideas.

"A coffee stand, a snack stand, a fruit stand, any kind of stand," Carolyn said Monday. Eventually, she settled on selling lemonade and cookies.

So, her mom called the city of Miami Beach to find out what to do about getting a license for her enterprise.

That's when Carolyn got her first taste of dealing with government.

"Food vending's not allowed in our city, so she can't get a license," says Miami Beach spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez. And that's basically what Carolyn's mom was told on the phone.

"I got really, really mad," said Carolyn.

It was all a big misunderstanding, the city says. They wouldn't have shut her down had she opened some sort of stand, Rodriguez said.

But in the end, the confusion may have been the best thing that could happen. First, a TV station reported that she couldn't get a license. Then suddenly, Carolyn found herself being whisked to Tallahassee by a politician.

"It bothers me to see any child shut down," said state Chief Financial Officer Tom Gallagher, who paid for her trip to the Capitol.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4068838/detail.html