Two enterprising young brothers have been praised for their caring attitude after setting up a lemonade stall to raise money for Caithness Foodbank.

Ollie and Sammie Hall, from Dunbeath, enlisted the help of mum Julia and dad Matthew for the venture and they attracted plenty of thirsty customers on a sunny day during their summer holidays.

The boys chose a location near the village harbour and had cakes on offer as well.

They raised £132 and used the money to buy fruit juice, crackers, sugar, jam and toiletries which they delivered to the foodbank centre in Wick.

Ollie, who will be eight in September, and five-year-old Sammie are pupils at Dunbeath Primary School.

Mum Julia explained: “Ollie came up with the idea and it kind of took off from there.

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"He was watching one of his favourite TV programmes, Odd Squad, and they were doing some kind of lemonade fundraiser. He came up to me and said, 'Mum, I want to make lemonade and raise money.'

“He started giving me ideas and he drew a picture of what his lemonade stand should look like, and our crafty daddy built it."

All the family helped to paint the stand. Ollie painted the eye-catching lemon slice, made from plywood, that sits at the top.

Ollie spent £5 of his own money buying the lemons before perfecting the zesty mix.

Julia said: “I told him to look up online how to make the lemonade and the ingredients he needed – the measurements, how many lemons, how much sugar.

“We had a tasting among our friends and he had a questionnaire asking them if they liked the taste – did it need to be more sour, did they think it needed more sugar?”

Mum baked a selection of treats to be sold from the stall and one of the boys' school friends, Skye Bain, also contributed some cakes. “That was very kind of her,” Julia said.

She added: “We had a great turnout and everyone was very supportive. It was a lovely sunny day – a perfect day for lemonade.”

Meanwhile, after the success of their first attempt, Ollie and Sammie may organise another sale soon.

“They were both asking, 'Can we do the lemonade stand again?' So there definitely will be another one coming,” Julia said.

“We made the stand substantial so it won't be a one-off – they are very keen to do it again. It was just a nice gesture.”

Caithness Foodbank volunteer Pat Ramsay said: “All of us as foodbank volunteers were tickled pink that two wee lads during their summer holidays had thought of doing something good in the community. We would like to say a great big thank-you to Ollie and Sammie.

“It just shows how much Caithness is a caring community.”

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