My Daughter's Lemonade for the Firefighters

After a wildfire threatened our town in August, the firefighters worked for six days straight. My eight-year-old daughter asked what she could do to help.

She decided to make lemonade. Not to sell. To give. She made four gallons, with her own hands and a lot of sugar, and we drove it down to the fire station.

The firefighters were exhausted and covered in soot. When she handed them the first cup, a big firefighter in his fifties knelt down to her level and drank the whole thing in one gulp. "Best lemonade I've ever had," he said. "You're a hero."

She didn't stop talking about it for weeks. A month later, the fire station sent her a thank-you card signed by every firefighter, and a little plastic badge. She wears it on her backpack every day.