Sound Shore

MAMARONECK — The first time Evan Greenberg decided to sell hot chocolate for charity five years ago, he enlisted 20 classmates to help run a makeshift stand in his family’s garage.

This year, the 9-year-old’s plans were more ambitious.

A diehard baseball fan, Evan wrote letters to his 40 favorite Major League baseball players asking if they’d make promotional stops at his fifth annual “Hot Cocoa Stand” this weekend at Last Licks sports gifts shop in Scarsdale.

“He had this idea that since (Mets outfielder) Jason Bay lives in town, he was going to invite him to the hot cocoa stand,” father Ken Greenberg said. “I said, ‘Well then we better get started before spring training starts’.”

While they haven’t heard back from any ballplayers, Evan and his brother Joshua, 7, hope their stand attracts plenty of people willing to pay $2 for a steaming cup of cocoa for a good cause.

The money collected, expected to be more than $1,000, will go to the Pediatric Cancer Foundation, which is based in Scarsdale. The foundation’s executive director, Nancy Joselson, is helping organize the event as the designated “cocoa co-chair.”

“It’s really important that every single dollar, every cent raised helps to save a child’s life,” she said.

Evan said he still hasn’t grown tired of running the stand after he started it five years ago.

“I know it’s for charity, and I really like giving to good causes,” he said. “That’s what keeps me going every year.”

The event will feature a raffle with prizes that include gift certificates, baseball jerseys and memorabilia, and dirt from Boston’s Fenway Park, which the Red Sox sent Evan in response to his letter to the players.

Ken Greenberg said his son has his heart also set on running a lemonade stand this summer, after Mets first-baseman Ike Davis suggested the idea  to Evan at a recent autograph signing.

“I thought the hot cocoa stand was enough,” the father said. “But now that Ike Davis said he should do a lemonade stand, we might not be able to stop him.”

The cocoa sale will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Friday, 12 to 5 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Last Licks, 1076 Wilmot Road in Scarsdale.

CAPTION: From left, Maria Valente, owner of chocolate shop Chocolations, shows Evan Greenberg, 9, and his friend Brandon Joselson, 9, how to make hot coacoa at her store in Mamaroneck. (handout)

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