Started by a courageous young girl undergoing cancer treatments in 2000, Alex’s Lemonade Stand has since raised over $200 million to fund over 1,000 research grants for childhood cancer. This summer, we’re teaming up with this incredible nonprofit to raise funds and awareness for their meaningful cause. ONEHOPE has proudly donated $50,000 this season to help find a cure for childhood cancer, with the goal of raising an additional $15,000 by October 2021. Learn more about Alex’s Lemonade Stand from Alex’s inspiring mother, Liz Scott, below.
Tell us about your incredible daughter, Alex, and the founding story of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
My daughter Alex was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer, just before her 1st birthday. She began treatment right away. She seemed to be beating the odds—but her tumors started growing again. We started to explore experimental options because all the known cures had failed her. We found an innovative treatment that offered promise for her type of cancer and decided to give it a try. We told her it was a “brand new treatment” to get her excited about the idea of going through yet another treatment. Within days of receiving it, she told us it had worked and that she felt better, her pain was gone.
Even though she was four, she had been around other children with cancer, and was wise beyond her years. Her experience with that “brand new treatment” inspired her to do something to help other kids like her. And I guess, as only a four-year-old could imagine, she thought a lemonade stand would allow her to raise money to help.
For months she kept asking me about setting up a lemonade stand, but she did not tell me why she wanted to do one. Finally when I asked her what she wanted to buy with the money from her stand, she said, “I’m not keeping it, I am giving it to a hospital so they can help kids the way they helped me.” I was proud of her but also doubted that she could have much of an impact with a lemonade stand. She said she didn’t care how much she raised; she wanted to do it anyway.
How much money did Alex end up raising?
Alex’s first stand was on July 1, 2000. Alex brought her sunny smile and lemonade stand to our front yard and raised $2,000 dollars. The next year, she held another stand. The next year, another. Word spread and other people started holding lemonade stands too.
Alex died in August 2004 when she was eight-years-old. She had raised more than $1 million to help find cures for other children, and started a movement of lemonade stands to cure pediatric cancer.
You and your family have continued Alex’s legacy through Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Tell us more about your foundation’s mission and work.
We knew we had to continue our daughter’s mission to make a change for other kids and their families, so they would not have to go through what Alex and our family went through. 21 years later, we and our army of supporters are still dedicated to changing the lives of children with cancer and their families. Our primary mission is to find cures for ALL children with cancer, but we also have family support programs to provide financial assistance, information, and comfort to families. To date, the foundation has raised more than $200 million, funded over 1,000 research projects, and assisted over 10,000 families through our support programs.
How can our community further support ALSF?
We truly believe that it will take all of us working together to cure all children with cancer. We make it easy for anyone to get involved by hosting a front yard lemonade stand. You can hold one in your front yard or anywhere in your community; it is also a great way to get children involved!
We have several other ways to support as well: you can hold a virtual event, a Facebook fundraiser, a wine fundraiser, or participate in our End Childhood Cancer Walk. We also have a great awareness and fundraising event in September called The Million Mile. September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and we encourage people to form teams and log the miles all month long by walking, running, or biking right in your community to collectively go one million miles for kids with cancer.
Support Alex’s Lemonade Stand with ONEHOPE
Help us raise an additional $15,000 for ALSF by shopping our fundraiser where 10% of every purchase goes back to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Together, we can make a difference and help find a cure for childhood cancer.
-The ONEHOPE Wine Team
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