'Pirates' Hand Plunder to Dedham Animal Shelter

Lisa Lagos said it's a lesson surprisingly many kids have picked up – the art of giving back to others and helping a community out.

But two young Dedham brothers gave back more than Lagos ever imagined.

Jack and Eric Linari worked six Wednesdays at the Dedham Farmers Market and raised $769 for the Dedham shelter of the Boston Animal Rescue League.

"It's beyond my imagination. I can't believe they raised that much money," said Lagos, the manager of the Dedham shelter.

Jack, 9, and Eric, 6, presented representatives of the Animal Rescue League with a large artistic check to frame Friday – and the real one is on the way.

The boys' father, Scott Linari, has said all along that he just wants to teach his boys what it means to help others, and the three years of Pirate Lemonade had done just that.

"It's more about teaching moments," Linari said. "Neither one of them has asked to run the stand for the day for them."

But the boys sold more lemonade – and collected more money – than in the previous two years combined. In the past, the boys' have raised a total of about $500 for the Dedham Food Pantry and a new sign at a playground near their home.

"We picked up the marketing of it with the Facebook page, and that put our name out there," Linari said.

The Linari family is a fan of animals, and adopted a cat from the shelter in 2008 that helped the boys decide on this summer's beneficiary, Lunari said.

"We heard that they were going to re-do it, so we gave them some money to do it," Jack said.

The soft-spoken Eric said he and his brother didn't take advantage of the tubs of lemonade that sat to the right of them at the market – they would only have a cup each.

The truth is they probably didn't have any left in the cooler for themselves.

"We maybe had a cup of lemonade each time," Eric said.

Pirate Lemonade received donations larger than 50 cents from friends and co-workers of their parents, but most of the profit came in the form of cold, yellow liquid goodness.

"We learned what... you can do with a lemonade stand at 25 and 50 cents a cup," Jack said.