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12-year-old Danny Doherty had a great idea. He would start an ice cream stand to raise money for his autistic brother’s hockey team.
The young entrepreneur was doing pretty well too, selling his homemade vanilla, shaved chocolate and fluffernutter ice cream for a few days to around 20 people.
Then his family received a letter from the Norwood Board of Health that he was in violation of the Massachusetts Food Code and had to shut it down, according to Western Mass News.
“I was surprised and upset,” Danny said about his ice cream stand getting shut down. “I don’t understand because there are so many lemonade stands and they don’t get shut down.”
Of course, the shutdown of his ice cream stand was all triggered by someone who complained about it.
“Somebody complained,” said Danny’s mom, Nancy Doherty. “That was the most disappointing part for us was that somebody thought it necessary to complain about a child’s stand. It seemed a little, you know, crazy if you ask me.”
She added, “I’m not upset with the town for responding to a complaint. I’m shocked someone complained. This was a tiny operation. Us serving 20 friends, family and neighbors isn’t a public health action. That is someone complaining to be a complainer.”
So, to circumvent the rules, Danny decided to just give away the ice cream for free and accept donations for his brothers Boston Bear Cubs, a hockey team for kids with physical and developmental disabilities.
That’s when word started to spread about what had happened.
The first day Danny gave away his ice cream he raised $1,000.
Then local businesses decided to hold their own fundraisers.
One of them, Furlong’s Candies, partnered with Boston radio station WWBX-FM and raised $3,600.
“Danny was trying to do a good thing for his brother’s team — and it’s not just a regular hockey team,” Nancy Thrasher, the store’s co-owner said.
By the time all was said and done, about $20,000 was raised for the hockey team.
So in the end it all worked out for the best. Except for some city officials who say they received hate mail and death threats over the incident.