Gabby the Great
A hot day, and determination to do good, those things brought East Grand Forks resident Gabby Tack, on her own to set up a lemonade stand to raise money to donate to a local charity tasked with helping those fighting cancer. Tack was partly inspired by her late grandfather, Larry Tack. Gabby has many wonderful memories of her grandfather, the one that stuck out most to her was their time fishing… “I loved fishing with grandpa. He would always make funny jokes and was a good fisherman. He would say, ‘Punch it, Chewy!’ when we would speed up the boat!”
When she started this venture a little over a week ago she hoped to raise 100 dollars, so far she is close to raising ten times that amount. That money will be going to the Hope Lodge. In Gabby’s words, “The Hope Lodge by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester helped my grandpa when he was sick with cancer. The Hope Lodge lets people stay overnight for free if they are there for cancer treatments. I read that for every $50, that allows someone to stay one night for free.”
Gabby has engineered this effort on her own. She did so without discussing her efforts ahead of time with her wonderful family. Her father, Dr. Dave Tack came home and saw the card table with Gabby’s sign setup. Like the wonderful father he is, Tack proceeded to take a picture of the setup featured above and posted it on Facebook. She has received online donations from as far away as Minneapolis and someone drove up from Fargo just to buy lemonade from her.
While her dad did not think of this in anyway, his efforts on social media amplifying Gabby’s great work have showcased the wonderful culture everyone in the Tack family has helped create. On the impact of this event, Tack has always emphasized that his kids should find the skills they are best at and utilize them to help others wherever possible “Gabby has a heart that’s so very big, and she’s always thinking about and doing things for others. She’s a great example for her little brother, Brooks, who I see learning from her example. My wife and I are really lucky with two great kids.”
What stood out to this reporter most about this entire story came in something Gabby’s father said. On worrying about not getting many people to come by Tack noted that “she said it didn’t matter, and anything she raises she wanted to give to a cancer cause.”
Everyone at the Exponent commends Gabby and the Tack family for their efforts. The city of East Grand Forks and the Greater Grand Forks community at-large are immeasurably better off because of them. Gabby said it best when describing what her favorite thing about this town is “Everyone here knows everyone and helps everyone. It’s really neat.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
