California boy losing eyesight brings popular lemonade stand to Florida

SARASOTA, Fla. (WFLA) — Lemonade is more than a drink made of water, sugar, and lemons. It’s also serving as a chance to help a young boy see the world.

On Sunday, 9-year-old Grayson Roberts set up a lemonade stand in Sarasota to raise money and visit places he has never seen before.

It’s been a tough road Grayson, but he traveled from California to Sarasota to turn his lemons into lemonade.

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His pop-up lemonade stand in a Sarasota neighborhood is getting plenty of attention and the community is quenching their thirst for a cause.

“It’s really cool and I’m glad that everyone is supporting me,” Grayson said. “We still have a bunch of things to do out here and I’m so excited.”

Grayson and his mother traveled 2,500 miles from the west coast of the country to the west coast of Florida to serve his “Limitless Lemonade” and see the most popular destinations in the Sunshine State.

He wants to go to the Kennedy Space Center and swim with manatees during his stay.

However, his vision is waning. He’s had 32 surgeries and five cornea transplants since birth.

His goal is to travel to as many places as possible before he loses the vision he has left.

“It started organically,” said Terica Roberts, Grayson’s mother. “We just had a lemonade stand. He had surgery over the summer and was very limited in what he could do. He couldn’t swim.”

That’s when Grayson and his mother created the concept of the lemonade stand.

“Just to get him out and hopeful for the future,” said Terica Robert. “I said ‘Let’s have a lemonade stand’ for traveling for the future.”

Molly Whalen organized the event and surprised Grayson with a $1,000 check from Taylor Morrison, a homebuilder in Sarasota.

Whalen saw Grayson’s story on TikTok and reached out with a generous invitation to stay at her Airbnb and visit the destinations of his choice.

“I told them ‘If you ever want to see the number one beach in America come to Sarasota and you can stay at my Airbnb’ and they took me up on it,” said Whalen.

Grayson is grateful for the opportunity and continues to turn his lemons into lemonade. “Don’t give up,” Grayson said. “You’re limitless.”