It's perhaps a quintessential symbol of the American dream: the lemonade stand. For years it has taught children across the country about the hard work that goes into running your own business and the value of the dollar when allowance simply doesn’t cut it.
Last week, three young entrepreneurs from Georgia -- Kasity Dixon, 14, Tiffany Cassin, 12, and Skylar Roberts, 10 -- took to their front yard to sell the summer classic, in hopes of earning enough cash for a much-needed cooldown at a local water park, Summer Waves Water Park in Jekyll Island, Ga.
But the so-called Midway Georgia Lemonade Girls' plans were quickly shut down by police, who said the girls did not have the proper permits to run the concession stand.
"I was standing by my kitchen window when I saw a police officer approach my daughters and niece," Amy Roberts, Kasity's and Skylar's mother, told Foxnews.com. “The officer must have yelled, because I could hear him all the way from my kitchen, screaming, 'Girls! This is your last warning, and I’m not going to tell you again, you cannot have that lemonade stand.'"
But the girls will get their sweet taste of success on Sunday, when they'll have the opportunity not just to go to the Summer Waves, but to sell lemonade inside the park.
"I heard about the story from a local vendor," Jekyll Island's general manager Steve Sharpe told Foxnews.com. ""I'm a father of three and have been in the restaurant and concession business my whole life, so the story tugged at my heartstrings a little bit."
Sharpe invited the girls to spend the day, free of charge, at the water park, where they will be provided with their very own lemonade stand built by the Summer Waves maintenance staff.
"They have been invited as honorary lifeguards, and for two hours they will sell their lemonade," Sharpe said. "Their mission in the first place was to enjoy the park, and we hope that's what they'll do."
"We're so excited," Kasity told FoxNews.com. "Me and my sister were kind of scared [of the police] because they raised their voices, but now we're going to have our own stand at the water park."
Kasity, her sister Skylar (who goes by a different last name) and cousin Tiffany are looking forward to this Sunday when they'll be working but also enjoying the rides at the park. As for what they will do with their hard-earned cash, Kasity said that, while she wants to buy Justin Bieber concert tickets, the girls have decided to do something a little more charitable with their earnings. The girls will be donating 10 percent of their proceeds to the Liberty Humane Shelter.
"We really love animals, so my mom said we should donate some of the money to an animal shelter," Kasity said.
"They're real responsible kids, and if they're sitting in the hot sun all day, they can spend their money any way they want," Amy Roberts said.
Having already showed some success at a local farmers' market where the girls were invited to sell their lemonade on Tuesday, the girls stocked up on back-to-school supplies for the upcoming semester.
"I told them I'm going to buy them school supplies, but they said they wanted to buy the 'fancy stuff' with their own money," Roberts said.
"I thought I was doing the right thing, teaching them good work ethics and I would never have set up the stand had I known it was illegal." Now, she says, her daughters are fearful of the police and even think just going outside is going to get them in trouble with the law.
And it's unclear if the girls are out of the woods just yet.
The Midway Police Department wouldn't comment on the Midway Lemonade Girls' case, nor would the municipal court clerk.
"There is an investigation going on for some criminal activity and we are not allowed to comment," court clerk Donna Davis told Foxnews.com.
Dave Roland, director of litigation and co-founder of the Freedom Center of Missouri, told FoxNews.com that he has identified over two dozen cases similar to the Midway Lemonade Girls' story.
"So many people recognize front yard concession stands as an ingrained part of American culture. No one ever thought it could be something prohibited, and that's why it takes people by surprise when these stories pop up," Roland told FoxNews.com.
Roland and his wife, Jennifer Zeigler Roland, founded the Freedom Center of Missouri in October 2010 to "expose the real foolishness that can result when you let the government do whatever it may please" and to give those who "cannot afford proper representation a voice to fight for their constitutional rights."
"Our way of helping is to publicize the issue, provide commentary on it and by putting together a database on our website of these examples, so that people all over the country can point to that as a resource to fight against these cases," said Roland.
In the meantime, the girls continue to squeeze out some entrepreneurial lessons when they set up their stand this weekend -- all for a good cause.
"We are a family water park and wish the girls the best of luck on Sunday," Sharpe told Foxnews.com. "I will certainly not be selling lemonade that day. This is going to be all for them."
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