When staff members of Mimi’s Shaved Ice and Fresh Squeezed Lemonade found out that one of their frequent customers has cancer, they immediately decided to do something about it.

The business at 602 N. Sturgeon in Montgomery City will be holding Avery’s Day, a fundraiser that is named after Avery Penn, an 11-year-old from Wellsville who has an inoperable brain tumor. The event will run from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on June 14 and all proceeds will go to the Penn family to help Avery fight brain cancer.

“It’s something that I’m very passionate about, especially when it’s someone that we find about,” owner Michelle Schnapp said. “They (the family) didn’t tell me, but I heard it through one of the kids who worked for me and is from Wellsville and she told me about it. I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I can’t imagine what they’re going through.’ To be so young and have to battle something so harsh is heartbreaking to me.”

Mimi’s will be selling hot dogs and chips for $6 and hamburgers and chips for $8 during the fundraiser.

“It’s nothing fancy, but it gives people a reason to not go home and cook and come here and stay,” said Tim Schnapp, Michelle’s husband.

Michelle said she has four employees who will donate all of their wages to the fundraiser as well as work on projects such as laminating flyers and doing deliveries to businesses.

“These girls are going above and beyond to help,” Michelle said. “That’s so amazing.”

Michelle said Avery and his family have been great customers at Mimi’s since it first opened on July 13, 2021.

“They’ve been coming at least a couple of times a week since we’ve opened and they come all of the time,” Michelle said. “When I found out about them, I was compelled to help.”

So, the owner went home and talked with her husband to come up with ideas to help out the Penn family. Tim said he liked the idea of honoring Avery at the lemonade stand.

“Why not?” he said. “It’s one of those things where this community has been good to us and has been very supportive to Mimi’s. We like to give back. We don’t want this to be about Mimi’s. We want this to be about Avery. So we’re not looking for any kind of recognition or whatsoever for this.”

Tim said according to Avery’s parents, the 11-year-old had to make visits to doctors in either St. Louis and Columbia several times a week.

“It’s really been a burden for him,” Tim said. “So we felt we would like to try to help him out somehow.”

Michelle said she would like to work on a donation site for anyone who can’t go to the Avery’s Day fundraiser.

“We were going to go around and talk to businesses and see not only would they like to order lunch through us, but if they could donate to the family directly, that would be amazing,” Michelle said. “The bills are really starting to pile up.”