NORMAN, Okla. –– A’Layah Robinson has been through foster care before, so she knows better than most what those children need.

She was fortunate that her foster family was prepared for her arrival, but when her brother had to come along at the last minute, he had nothing. A’Layah gave him a stuffed bear, and it sparked an idea.

“She said that day that she wanted to make sure every foster kid had a toy,” Misty, her mother, said.

Now 6 years old, she has A’Layah’s Lemonade for Love, a lemonade stand-based charity that also provides backpacks of supplies to children in foster care. On Monday, Misty and A’Layah brought 50 bags to the Cleveland County, Oklahoma Department of Human Services to donate to the Citizens Advisory Board.

The backpacks will go to foster children in the county’s communities, and Misty said the plan is to donate backpacks to every county in the state. The items inside all come from A’Layah’s experiences.

“When I was in foster care, I had all kinds of stuff,” A’Layah said. “My brother had nothing. He just had the clothes that he came in.”

That’s where the toys come in. Then there’s a blanket, from the time A’Layah and her foster family had been evicted from their home and she had to sleep on the porch.

Now, she wants to make sure every foster child never gets cold.

Then there was the time A’Layah’s foster family had to brush her teeth with a dirty rag. So each bag has a toothbrush and toothpaste.

Finally, each backpack comes with one, big book.

“When momma took me to church, I turned to her and her ‘Who’s God?’” A’Layah said.

So she wants to make sure every foster child has a Bible and knows who God is.

Lemonade for Love fits a crucial need in the foster care world, said Citizen Advisory Board President Angela Skinner.  The organization strives to provide a lot of the resources A’Layah wants to give in her backpacks, Skinner said.

“We try to bridge the gap on a lot of these needs,” Skinner said. “She’s a 6-year-old doing this. That’s a big deal.”

Misty is a single mother, and she now has adopted A’Layah, her brother Elijah, and her infant brother Jakobe. If they were going to get backpacks to every county in Oklahoma, they would need a way to pay for the supplies a hundred times over.

And once again, A’Layah had an idea.

“This family was having a party, a quinceañera, and the teenagers didn’t have enough money, so they were selling lemonade,” she said.

Misty and A’Layah did their research and set up a stand in their hometown of Sulphur, about 70 miles south of Norman. The first weekend produced $187. It was a start, but each backpack costs about $10 to make.

Word got out, A’Layah took every chance she could to tell people about her cause, and interest grew. One weekend, that same lemonade stand produced $1,400.

“It’s not unusual for a DHS worker to say ‘We need you to take this 3-year-old,” Sue Durrett, CAB program coordinator and former Cleveland County DHS worker, said. “When a child comes into care, they don’t have anything. Giving them something that’s theirs is really important to them.”

Once they get the supplies, A’Layah, Misty and a few local volunteers from the church youth group put together the bags. Sometimes A’Layah does 50 on her own, though Misty said she doesn’t let her do more than that at one time.

They also attend adoption fairs and bring supplies to children’s fairs, where they have simple games set up where children can win toys.

“We have a price wheel and a little lemon toss game,” Misty said. “Our goal is slowly getting met.” 

Troxtell writes for the Norman, Oklahoma Transcript.