TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — Twin 12-year-olds Brook and Maya Wilson are spending their summer vacation learning the ins and outs of running a business while giving back to the community.
The sisters founded Double Trouble Citrus, a homemade lemonade and cookie stand operating every other weekend in their Town of Tonawanda neighborhood.
"Everything's homemade," Maya said.
"Yeah, everything's homemade for the cookies, we made them overnight. Mom and Maya did those," Brook said.
The twins did not just set up a stand and start selling; they did the math first.
"We did like all the budgeting and we figured out how much everything would cost to replenish everything," Maya said.
The name of their business reflects both their identity and their product.
"Double Trouble Citrus," Brooke said, explaining the name came naturally.
"Well, we just thought of it because we're twins and lemonade has citrus in it —" Maya said.
"— And our mom says that we're trouble," Brook added.
Customers can find the sisters selling $4 lemonades and $1 cookies.
A portion of their proceeds goes to Solid Foundation Prep, a Western New York technology and basketball nonprofit that has impacted the lives of young people in the region for the last nine years.
For Brook, the cause is personal.
"I really love basketball. I've been doing basketball when I was super young," she said. "It can help kids get scholarships so they can have the same opportunity as me to get better and train better and do the sport that they love," Brook explained.
Brook is also an athlete within the Solid Foundation Prep program, making her support of the organization a full-circle moment.
Brothers Bashir and Tariq Ansari co-founded the nonprofit, which combines athletic training with academic development.
"Not only do we give them high-level basketball training, high-level skills, we also put them in the classroom, we give them lessons, we give them tech assignments," the Ansaris said.
The co-founders said the twins' initiative means a great deal to the organization.
"It's huge because we love supporting our students, anything that they want to get into. It doesn't necessarily have to be basketball, it could be something innovative like this," they said. "We're for it and I'm just happy that, that Brook and her sister were able to like say, hey, we want to help you guys too."
Double Trouble Citrus will be open next on July 18 and 19 from noon to 5 p.m. at 59 Welwyn Circle in the Town of Tonawanda. Additional dates throughout the summer can be found on their Facebook page, also called Double Trouble Citrus.
Solid Foundation Prep still has spots open for its summer league, held at Buffalo State University on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon. The program is open to kids ages 10 through high school age.
