Staff writer

agillooly@observer-reporter.com

At the close of last school year, Michelle LaCarte was talking about all the fun things the family would do over her summer vacation.

While swimming and a vacation were on the horizon, Grace Ann LaCarte, 7, was more concerned about how the patients at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh would pass the time.

She told her mother that she wanted to donate a few of her stuffed bears to the sick children there, hoping it would give them some joy.

"It's just her nature," Michelle LaCarte said. "She just thinks about everyone. She's an old soul."

After discovering that the hospital could not accept used toys, Grace was undaunted. She told her mother she wanted to set up a lemonade stand.

Immediately.

In the end, Grace opted to sell her toys and stuffed animals at a garage sale. After sifting through both her own toys and those of her 4-year-old brother, Jack, she then wrote a letter to her family and school friends asking for donations.

By the time the LaCartes, of Carroll Township, had the two-day sale in late July, their garage was full to overflowing with everything from toys to furniture to household appliances.

Her grandmother even baked homemade chocolate chip cookies to sell, which complemented the lemonade stand erected for the occasion.

Although a sign advertising the snacks read 25 cents, when someone asked Jack for a drink he kindly responded that the cost was $10.

"They were pushing the baked goods pretty hard," Michelle LaCarte said Thursday, after the family presented a check to Monessen shoe shiner turned philanthopist Albert Lexie.

Despite heavy downpours on the first day of the sale, Michelle LaCarte said people showed up in droves. Some came to check out the goods while others came to support Grace's goal.

In the end, Grace helped raise $650 for the Free Care Fund at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"She couldn't have been more excited," her mother said.

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