A local girl has taken the entrepreneurial spirit of a lemonade stand to a whole new level. Raylee Miniken, 12, is making and selling cards to to raise money for the Campaign to Save Mount Grant.

Miniken has so far raised more than $1,000 after two times at the Saturday Market and with the help of family friend Kathleen Foley of the San Juan Preservation Trust and friend (and manager) Ayla Ridwan, also 12.

Miniken credits her grandmother as the seedling that started the art project.

“My grandma is an artist and she has a lot of cards around her house. So I just started making them there at first,” Miniken said. After showing her art to Foley, she suggested she make more for a cause.

“After I saw them I said you know what? Those are so good, could we make a bunch of them and we could do a fundraiser?” Foley said. “She said yes, so I gave her a list of mammals and birds that live up there. So she chose a few of those to make cards out of and she came up with all these designs.”

The cards include a variety of bird species like a bald eagle in a nest, and a pileated woodpecker.

“Art has always been an important part of my life,” Miniken said in her artist statement. “I love creating, drawing and just messing around with all sorts of media. For me, art is not about right or wrong answers, it’s about having fun and following my passion.”

Miniken went up Mount Grant for the first time this summer as a volunteer with the San Juan Island Youth Conservation Corps and said of the experience “it was amazing.”

For the time being, the three haven’t set up another time to be at the Saturday Market, though Miniken said if people contact her she would be happy to sell them.

When asked about future art-for-fundraisers, Miniken said she would be very interested, thought she doesn’t have anything lined up yet.

“She’s got a big heart,” Foley said.