Mountain Green teen continues Evie’s Gift Hot Cocoa Stand

It’s that time of year once again when Mountain Green’s Gerrit Noorda sets up Evie’s Gift Hot Cocoa Stand at the entrance of Rollins Ranch.

Over the past 10 years, 17 year-old, Gerrit has sold hot chocolate along with donuts as a fundraiser donating the money to families who have lost a newborn infant. 

This year, Gerrit decided he wanted all money raised from his stand to go to a very special boy. Sam Dingman, a freshman at Morgan High School, was diagnosed with T-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma in July of 2022. For the past 16 months, Sam has been undergoing treatment for cancer with 11 more months to go. 

Sam’s situation is different as he is the only Down syndrome child in the nation who has been diagnosed with this type of cancer.

Gerrit had the opportunity to be a peer tutor for Sam during the first trimester of this school year. Because of his love for Sam, Gerrit chose to help Sam’s family with the costs of his medical treatment through Evie’s Gift Hot Cocoa Stand.

When Gerrit did his first cocoa stand 11 years ago at the age of seven, his parents asked him what he was going to buy himself with the money. They were surprised when he said, “Mom, I’m not buying myself anything, I’m going to give it to Aunt Chris for ‘Evie’s Gift’!” 

Evie, Gerrit’s cousin who passed away at birth earlier that year, was the recipient of kindness from the Utah Share program and Now, I Lay Me Down to Sleep, organization. “They helped with her [Evie], and put her in a dress, and did all this stuff for my little cousin including making molds of Evie’s hands and feet for her family to remember her,” said Gerrit.  

Wanting to pay it forward, the Noorda family wanted to get all their children involved to help raise money for Evie’s parents to give them a gift for Christmas. Suggesting a hot chocolate stand, Gerrit raised $300 in one weekend to donate toward “Evie’s Gift” to help his aunt and uncle pay for the headstone and make a donation to the Share program. “It was very healing,” said Christina Noorda, Gerrit’s aunt, who is the mother of Evie.

All these years later, Gerrit is still raising hundreds of dollars through his cocoa stand donating proceeds to help families pay for headstones for newborn infants who have passed away along with donating to the organizations who helped Evie’s family.

Evie’s Gift Cocoa Stand will take place Saturday, Dec. 9 at the entrance to Rollins Ranch in Mountain Green with proceeds going to the Dingman family this year. Those who would like to support Gerrit and Sam can stop by the stand from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. or until the donuts are gone.  λ