Community Star of the Week: Alex's Lemonade Stand

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When four-year-old Alexandra Scott first set up a lemonade stand in 2000, her mother Liz was astonished when she had raised $2,000 for childhood cancer research.
If $2,000 felt like a big number then, the $200M Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised for childhood cancer over the past 15 years can almost feel incomprehensible. As big as that number is, it's still not enough, not when childhood cancers go without a cure.

"Alex started this literally in our front yard with a lemonade stand," Liz Scott, the Co-Executive Director of the Foundation, said. "I thought she would raise $5 or $10. I mean who on Earth raises $2,000 with a lemonade stand and now fast forward, we've raised over $200M. When I say we, I mean what Alex started was the spark, but there have hundreds of thousands, it's probably safe to say millions of people who contributed to those stands, to those events and donated online over the years to make it possible to reach this lofty goal of curing childhood cancer."
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Alex's Lemonade Stand has grown into a national phenomenon, with Alex's story serving as an inspiration. Diagnosed with neuroblastoma before she turned one, Alex held her first lemonade stand at four and continued to raise money and awareness until she passed away in 2004 at the all-too-early age of eight. Before she passed, she set and reached her goal of helping raise $1M for childhood cancer and her legacy has only continued to grow.
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"I'm proud that she thought of doing this," Scott said. "I'm proud that she was really determined and that as she got sicker her goals got bigger for what she wanted to do to raise a million at the end of her life. I'm mostly grateful for her life, I'm grateful for everyone who has continued, I'm grateful that we've seen new cures. But really I'm just in awe of her life and her strength and just incredibly humbled to see what's become of it."
Over the past 15 years, the foundation has facilitated lemonade stands and held fundraisers across the country. The proceeds have been able to fund more than 1,000 cutting-edge research projects at nearly 150 institutions, per their website.
The focus of their funding is on personalized and less-toxic treatments, biological and immunotherapies. They've been able to fund clinical trials for pediatric drugs, which have helped cure numerous children. Scott said as a result of some of the projects they've helped fund, they've seen progress in areas like the survival rates of leukemia relapses.
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"We're making real progress, but there's a long way to go for some diseases, immunotherapy isn't working for all of them, so we're funding some projects to figure that out," Scott said. "The good news is they know much more now when they give a child a treatment if it will work for them."
Like virtually every other facet of society, the coronavirus pandemic has affected the ALSF. Fundraising for their research has dropped by nearly half, as the foundation largely depends on in-person events, whether they are individual lemonade stands, fundraising galas, or setting up on the concourse of an Islanders game. They've pivoted to virtual events, but while the world has largely been on pause since March, their fight hasn't.
"Childhood cancer doesn't rest," Scott said. "This year, the needs in the childhood cancer community have grown so much so that we started a COVID-19 fund to help families who were in financial distress because of the pandemic."
While the foundation's primary goal is funding research, they're responding to the moment by providing relief to families who are now dealing with the extra burden of COVID-19 while having children in active treatment. For families who've lost work, they're helping bridge the financial costs of things like groceries - $600K worth - and transportation to and from treatments. They've also helped pay for hotels for families since community houses haven't been an option during the pandemic.
"We've been trying to do everything we can to make sure they have what they need to get through this terribly stressful time in their lives," Scott said. "It's been a tough year, but at the same time there's been a lot of inspiring things happening. At the end of the day, we're committed more than ever to keep things going for these families."

While the Foundation is focused on the big picture of finding cures for childhood cancer, Scott can't help but be inspired every time someone new starts a lemonade stand, like the group of
Westhampton teens
who got involved last year and are still fundraising today.
"We're always inspired by the effort other people put in, but I especially love when young people get involved," Scott said. "They can speak about the cause and think about Alex's story and why it's important and get their friends together and get their community together. To me, that's really what Alex started and what it's all about and a big part of who we are."
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Scott has said that the foundation's goal is to one day go out of business by curing childhood cancers, but until that day, she encourages people to get or stay involved through donations, or attending their virtual events.
"It's really important," Scott said. "We find that even now in 2020, when there is a lot going on, people want to give if they can. If you give them a reason to, you inspire them to, you remind them kids are still fighting cancer, people will give and it's a cause everyone can get behind."