Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

What began as a way for Peggy Claybar to teach her grandchildren about giving back to others became an annual event benefiting a local nonprofit dog rescue.

Claybar Grandkiddo’s 8th Annual Benefit Lemonade Stand and Cookie Sale will be held from 10 a.m. to about 3 p.m. Tuesday at 602 W. Pine Ave. in the Old Orange Historic District. 

All proceeds will go to benefit Traci’s Texas Tails. 

Animal lovers Peggy Claybar and Traci James partnered on the event eight years ago through their passion to rescue dogs. 

Claybar said her father and his friends were always volunteering for organizations such as the Lion’s Club and others as well as her husband and she wanted to teach her grandchildren how to give back and volunteer. She realized James’ organization was a good way to teach them.

One day while at the Lions Club carnival with the grandchildren she noted that the event was run by volunteers. At the time they were too young to fully understand the concept of volunteering. 

“I wanted to teach them what it meant to volunteer. To work and not keep the money.  Now they’ll always understand about giving of one’s time and talents to benefit the community,” Claybar said.

James, through Traci’s Texas Tails, uses proceeds to help vet the dogs – getting their vaccines, spay/neuter, flea prevention and helping find them good homes. 

She said she advocates for the city of Orange and Pinehurst. Some of the dogs are in the shelters and others are dumped and left to fend for themselves. 

Through her network of advocates she sometimes sends dogs to good homes in New Jersey and Canada.  The organization is foster based so the pets meaning after the dogs are vetted they go to a foster home until they find a new home. 

The event

Claybar said in the beginning her and the grandchildren would bake cookies for a week to prepare for the sale, painted some rocks to sell and made the lemonade the day of the event. 

“We had one jar I kept refilling. I’d run in the house and refill it,” Claybar said.

Her son David Claybar, owner of  Old Orange Cafe, now bakes the cookies and makes the lemonade for the event. 

And others have jumped in to add to the benefit. Child’s Building Supply and Amy Prouse have donated baskets for the raffle and another person created several wreaths to be raffled as well. 

The benefit has grown through the years. The first one brought in hundreds of dollars and last year $5,146 was collected, she said.