When 8-year-old Grayce Schwindler asked her mom if she could have a lemonade stand three summers ago, the answer was no.

Their house wasn’t on a road busy enough to garner business, reasoned her mother, Kassandra Schwindler, who, as the owner of the Dusty Green Cafe, knows how the food business works.

“I wanted a lemonade stand, but no one comes to our road in the summer,” Grayce said.

But that wasn’t the end of the conversation for the Schwindlers, who brainstormed a new plan together when they found out that their neighbor went all out with their Christmas lights every year. The Ridgways who live across the street from the Schwindlers decorate their home on McNeill Street every year so that the light display matches up with music playing from a radio station, drawing people from around town to come and park their cars in front of the lights from 5 to 10 p.m. every night in December.

“When we found out our neighbor does these lights every year, we threw the lemonade stand idea right out the window,” Grayce said.

Three winters ago she and her mom set up a card table in her front yard and she sold hot cocoa, by donation, to the light display viewers.

That year, around 300 people bought hot cocoa from Grayce, so the next year they upgraded her operation with a pallet stand. This year, they painted it and decorated it with lights. With music from the radio playing, the hot cocoa steaming, and the lights from the house across the street illuminating the street, Grayce has the perfect set-up for selling her cocoa.

A third grader at Salish Coast Elementary, Grayce spends her after-school time at cheerleading practice. As soon as she gets home, she’s out in her stand, walking from car to car with the Ridgways to hand out candy canes and let people know she’s got hot cocoa for sale.

This year, she has raised more than $300 with her hot cocoa sales. She used some of the money to pay for the supplies she needed, like paper cups and cocoa.

But instead of profiting off of her sales, she decided to spend the rest on helping kids her age.

“I wanted to be less greedy and more kind,” Grayce said.

So she picked up six tags from the Christmas 4 Children donation tree stationed at her mom’s cafe. This tree is part of the larger organization that enlists families to purchase gifts for a kid in need. Each tag has the child’s name, age and what they might need or want for Christmas. In Port Townsend, the drive is organized in large part by the Kiwanis Club.

“A long time ago we received a Christmas 4 Children gift,” Kassandra Schwindler said. “Our kids remember that and every year we try to pull at least one tag to buy gifts for. This year, Grayce had enough money raised to pull six.”

Grayce shopped locally to buy gifts for the kids; most were the same age as her. She went to Whistle Stop Toys, Quimper Mercantile and the Port Hadlock QFC in search of puzzles, games and toys that she knew they would like.

“It was easy to pick out presents for the girls,” she said. “I asked my brother what to get for the boys.”

Altogether, she spent $300 on gifts for the kids. All of the money came from her hot cocoa stand.

Now, as Christmas approaches, she is going to be continuing her hot cocoa sales just on the weekends instead of every night. With the money raised from the last few weeks of the lights (the Ridgways usually stop their light show in the second week of January, Kassandra Schwindler said) Grayce is going to be building “something from the heart” to donate to East Jefferson Fire Rescue’s firefighters and EMTs.

“I just wanted to give back to my community,” she said.