A GROOM whose wedding was called off decided to make lemonade out of lemons by turning the reception into a charity fundraiser.

Pittsburgh man Phil LaBoon, whose relationship ended after his girlfriend backed out of the wedding, decided not to let his already-paid for reception go to waste.

Instead, he decided to make the best of things, turning “lemons” into a LemonAID event to raise money for Surgicorps. The charity funds surgery for children in developing countries and says the money raised will go towards a trip to Africa

“This isn’t easy for me,” he told WTAE at the August 31 party. “But I’m excited I can help and I’m excited for Surgicorps.”

He said the fundraiser was a way of finding the positive after his engagement ended.

“For me, it’s just making the best of a bad situation,” Mr LaBoon said. “I don’t think I’m doing anything that anyone else wouldn’t do in that situation. Do you just flush money down the toilet, or do you roll your sleeves up and try to do something good?”

News of the LemonAID event quickly spread, with hundreds of people snapping up the $75 tickets.

“Now we’ve had over 800 requests from people online asking to buy tickets, people wanting to fly in from other states that wanted to come and support this, people donating tens of thousands of dollars,” Mr LaBoon said.

Surgicorps’ Dr John Demos said when he first heard about the wedding reception-turned-charity ball he couldn’t believe it.

“This is a joke, I mean, no one does this,” he said. “Then I felt like a bride, thank you very much.”