When life gives you lemons, make a profit.

That’s what groups of enterprising youngsters in Dartmouth did on Saturday for this year’s Lemonade Day event, which saw nearly two dozen colorful stands pop up all over town.

And although the day started gray and chilly, people were buying.

More than ten people had already bought drinks and snacks from the Lemonade Ladies on Howard Street one hour after opening.

“A lot of people have been getting the fresh squeezed,” said 10-year-old Madalen Williams. She and her friend Cassie Sommer (9) planned to split the profits after donating a portion to a local animal shelter.

Lemonade Day is a national experiential learning program that teaches kids how to start and manage their own lemonade stand.

They can keep all of their profits to spend or save, but are encouraged to donate some of it to a charity of their choice — and they learn valuable business skills, real-world math, and teamwork along the way.

Customers were already lining up for a stand at the corner of Slocum and Colonial Way run by 11-year-olds Delaney Gove and Elena Sobran, with help from Delaney’s brother Chase (4).

Word had gotten out that the kids were raising money for Delaney’s swim coach, Brett Pacheco, so that he could pay for his infant son’s heart transplant.

A GoFundMe page set up for the baby’s medical bills had already reached over $40,000 — but the costs may be well above that.

Delaney said she hoped to raise another $500 to $1,000.

“Our original plan was, we were going to donate to St. Jude and the animal shelter. But then we found out that Brett’s child needed a heart transplant. And he has helped me so much in the past two years that I needed to do something for his family,” she said.

Among the crowd of customers was Brett Pacheco’s old swim coach, Jim Medeiros.

“I think every little bit helps,” he said. “I know they have the GoFundMe page that’s working well, but this is gonna bring more awareness, I think.”

After hearing about his story online, 8-year-old Amya Acevedo decided to donate some of the profits from her Padanaram lemonade stand to the little boy who needs a heart as well.

Her stand had a bit of a twist — alongside the more traditional lemonade and snacks, Amya was also selling homemade ‘slime’, colorful goo for kids to play with.

But she had to prepare everything the day before, as earlier that morning she had just taken her first communion.

Amya said that business was good in spite of the late start.

Business was also good at Lazy Lemonade off of State Road in North Dartmouth.

“We’ve made $37,” said 9-year-old Cameron Amaral, who was running the stand with his twin sister Mia and with support from their cousins Adriana (9) and Jakobe Pavao (6).

According to Mia, they’re donating the profits to the American Diabetes Association, because their uncle has diabetes and needs a kidney.

Some of the kids were more help than others.

“I’m not,” declared Jakobe when asked if he was helping.

“He just takes lollipops instead,” said Cameron with a grin.

If life ever gives any of these kids a bunch of lemons, they’ll know what to do with them.