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River Forest Honors 9-11 Victims With 13th Annual LemonAid Charity Event

RIVER FOREST, Ill. (CBS) -- For the 13th consecutive year, residents of the 700 block of Bonnie Brae Drive in west suburban River Forest marked the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by turning lemons into Lemon-AID.

The street was cordoned off, block-arty style, and neighborhood children and others from throughout the western suburbs stopped by to make a donation, sip some lemonade, munch on mini-cheeseburgers and popcorn, hear live entertainment, sit in on storytelling and have a good time.

The event has been known as "Lemon-AID" since it began in 2002 with a desire to make a positive response to the 2001 attacks, and to include children in its planning and execution.

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Organizer Patty Henek said that first year, they raised $400. Last year they raised more than $32,000. Each year a different charitable recipient has been named. This year, there are two – Maywood Fine Arts and Oak Park's Parenthesis Family Center.

To help with the fundraising, organizers are selling $20 screaming yellow T-shirts, $10 mugs and $15 caps, all with the Lemon-AID logo on it.

This year's co-chairs are 17-year-old Elliot Edmunds and 15-year-old Christina Strand. Elliot moved to Bonnie Brae five years ago and said Lemon-AID has changed his view of 9/11, which he still calls a "huge tragedy," but says, "We've turned that into something great, something happy…and change it into something that's good."

Christina has participated from the beginning and says she can't remember a 9/11 without Lemon-AID.

"It means Lemon-AID to me now," she says. "It's so great that we can take such a sad event and turn it into something so amazing for our entire community."

Maywood Arts Center plans to put its donation toward scholarships who otherwise would be unable to afford its dance, music, ballet and gymnastics programs. Parenthesis will outfit at least two additional classrooms for use in parenting education for teens, single mothers and young adults.

The gray skies and cooler-than-normal temperatures did not thin out the crowd.

"Everyone's happy to put on their fleece jackets and come on out," said Parenthesis Development Director Bonnie Andorka.

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