After town closes boy’s ice cream stand, donations and death threats follow

Bored and looking for something to do this summer, Danny Doherty hatched a plan to raise money for his brother's hockey team by selling homemade ice cream.

But a few days after setting up a stand and serving up vanilla, shaved chocolate and fluffernutter to about 20 people, Danny's family received a letter from the Norwood Board of Health ordering it shut down. Town officials had received a complaint and said that the 12-year-old's scheme violated the Massachusetts Food Code, a state regulation.

“I was surprised and upset,” he said of the letter that came Aug. 5. “I don't understand because there are so many lemonade stands and they don't get shut down.”

Danny's mom, Nancy Doherty, who had encouraged her son to start the stand as long as he donated half of the proceeds to charity, also was taken aback.

“Somebody complained. That was the most disappointing part for us was that somebody thought it necessary to complain about a child's stand,” she said. “It seemed a little, you know, crazy if you ask me.”

Rather than give up, Danny decided to give away the ice cream and accept donations for the Boston Bear Cubs, a team featuring players with physical and developmental disabilities — including his brother, who is autistic.

That's when the neighborhood fundraiser blew up and became the talk of Norwood, a suburban town about an hour from Boston.