AGAWAM– An Agawam girl with a big heart spent the last days of her summer vacation giving back.

On Aug. 24, 12-year-old Callie Gridley decided to hold a lemonade stand, but instead of earning money to spend, she raised money for the Dakin Humane Society. 

Gridley’s grandma, Pam Jendrysik-Przybyla told Reminder Publishing, her granddaughter first came up with the idea after they had seen “a couple of posts from places that rescue animals asking for supplies.”

Jendrysik-Przybyla said Gridley got the money, went to Stop and Shop, got supplies, and set up shop. After a long day of hard work, Gridley raised a total of $130.25 from the lemonade stand sales.

The community, Jendrysik-Przybyla said, was “wonderful” and generous, “There were so many people from the community, some people didn’t even buy lemonade, they just wanted to donate.”

She said there were numerous times throughout the day that people would visit the stand simply to donate to Gridley’s cause.

Gridley said they initially wanted to hold a tag sale in addition to the lemonade stand, but “My grandma mentioned the Dakin center needed food, so I decided to do it for Dakin instead of for no reason.”

Jendrysik-Przybyla said Gridley, who she said loves animals, plans to buy hundreds of cans of pet food to donate to Dakin.

While she’s still young, Gridley said she plans to be involved with Dakin in the future. She said, “I’ve gotten both of my pets there, I want to volunteer there, but I don’t think I’m old enough. I definitely will in the future.”