Big Bad Officials Shut Down Kid’s Ice Cream Stand In Massachusetts

12-year-old Danny Doherty from Norwood, Massachusetts learned that hard lesson that no good deed goes unpunished.

He was bored this summer and decided to open a little ice cream stand (a card table with homemade ice cream) to raise money for his brother’s hockey team. But the Boston Globe reports, that after just a few days, he was shut down.

Danny's family got a letter from the Norwood Board of Health ordering it shut down. Wow. That's harsh. Apparently, his tiny stand violated the Massachusetts Food Code, a state regulation. Danny told the Boston Globe,

I was surprised and upset. I don’t understand because there are so many lemonade stands and they don’t get shut down.

Danny's mom, Nancy Doherty, was also shocked by the letter. Her biggest disappointment is that someone complained about a kid's ice cream stand that was raising money for not just Danny, but for his brother's hockey team which is a charitable cause. That was the deal mom made with Danny - you can have the stand as long as half the money goes to a charity.

Norwood, Massachusetts boy gave away the ice cream free!

They had a lot of ice cream and decided to just give it away for free. They left a donation jar out for the Boston Bear Cubs. It's a hockey team with players that have physical and developmental disabilities. Danny's brother is autistic and on the team.

That's where the story takes a massive right turn into the good of people. The first day they gave away the ice cream, they ran out in about 10 minutes and raised $1,000. Word began to spread about Danny's shut-down ice cream stand. and the donations poured in.

Don't mess with a kid's ice cream stand raising money for charity

When all was said and done, the town of Norwood, Massachusetts (about an hour outside of Boston) had donated around $20,000 for the hockey team. That's more than the team spends in an entire year. That kind of money is life-changing for a small hockey club and a little kid trying to do something nice. The coach of the Boston Bear Cubs told the Boston Globe,

The community response has overwhelmed us. There are a lot of good people out there. Danny inspired a whole lot of people to do good and to be kind and to help us out.

Maybe not every good deed goes unpunished.