SHIVELY, Ky. (WHAS11) -- On a hot summer day, some ice cold lemonade hits the spot. Fortunately, Charles Ward has his neighborhood covered, with gallons of yellow and pink lemonade.
The 10-year-old entrepreneur started up his lemonade stand outside his corner home on Lynn Lea road in Shively five years ago when he asked his mother to buy him a toy racecar.
"She said, 'Well if you'd like to get whatever you want, you can make your own money,' because it was really expensive," he said.
Charles' lemonade stand, with help from little sister Sophia, has grown over the years.
"Ever since he's started here, he's had customers nonstop," Charles' mother Crystal Corbin said.
Some days, Charles said he makes more than $100. He sells snacks, like popcorn, chips and pickles, for a dollar each. He said he doesn't put a price on lemonade, allowing people to give whatever they feel like giving.
"I felt good inside because I could buy my own stuff with my own money because I don't really know why," he said.
"He's also very thoughtful," Corbin said. "If someone in the house needs something or wants something, he will also sneak and buy that item for them."
Sunday, Charles chose not to collect money for himself or his family, instead raising funds to give to the Shively Police Department, hoping to treat his local officers to a nice lunch or dinner with his profits.
"I feel like they protect us a lot and they deserve like a reward for it, like an extra reward," he said.
"If you can get out here and you have everything that you need in life and you're good and settled in, then why not take a day to help someone else, especially someone like Shively Police Department who put their lives on the line every day for us," Corbin said.
Several officers surprised Charles at his lemonade stand Sunday afternoon, pulling up in their police cruisers with their sirens blaring and lights flashing. They thanked him for keeping them in his thoughts, and then gave him some gifts too, including a new cooler and other supplies for his lemonade stand.
"For him to sit out here in the heat like he is all day to raise money and then he's not even keeping it for himself, I mean he's just a really generous kid," Shively Police Det. Patrick Allen said. "Can't say enough about him."
"The sugar in his heart - it keeps people coming back," Corbin said.
Charles' lemonade stand was also spotlighted on Nextdoor, an app that keeps neighborhoods connected, as one of its top 10 lemonade stands in the country.
►Contact reporter Dennis Ting at dting@whas11.com. Follow him on Twitter (@DennisJTing) and Facebook.