Madelyn is a sweet little girl who loves to help others.  With her birthday right around Thanksgiving, we were already discussing all that we had to be thankful for and what we could do for others.  Knowing Alex's courageous story and the Scott's unbelievable determination to keep her spirit alive, we suggested to Madelyn that she could have her 5th birthday party as an Alex's Lemonade Stand party. 

She immediately talked about all the coins she had in her piggy bank to help the sick kids.  She was thrilled too with the idea of making lemonade for her friends. We weren't too sure whether the other kids would be too keen on "just bringing money" to the party but on the day of the party, 20 children walked through our doors holding their envelopes up high and saying "Here's my money to help the sick kids."   Of course they were looking for their lemonade as well!!  The response was unbelievable and one little birthday party for a 5 year old was able to raise $336.50 toward pediatric cancer research.  Madelyn is a huge fan of Alex's book and can't wait to have her own lemonade stand outside in the summer.  We look forward to raising more money then.

“The experience for myself as a host was such a joy, it felt so good to be able to contribute in anyway I can.  I have a little boy and I wanted to teach him how blessed we are and what it means to give and help people that are sick.  We gathered my niece and nephew and some friends and hosted one at our house.  I thought it was a success for our 1st time.”

-Lauren Geran

The Ventnor Educational Community Complex 8th Grade Student Council held a fundraiser for the month of October. The Council collected $1 donations to support Alex’s Lemonade Stand. In addition to the month-long collection, they participated in Alex’s “Great Lemon Event” on Halloween, with many other people throughout the United States, to raise money for this great cause. Our school participated by having face painting in the school cafeteria during the student’s lunch periods. The VECC Student Council facilitated this great fundraiser and is excited to report that they raised $669.00 for Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

- Margie Master, VECC Student Council Advisor

Our town is a small community so we have our elementary, middle, and high school all on one campus. I had 2 stands at the elementary school, and one at the middle and high school. The parents and kids split up and worked between the four stands.

As you can see from the pictures, we had shirts made, which were so cute! The week before the day of the stand I had kids write announcements about the lemonade stand. They were phenomenal! The kids had to include background info on Alex and info about when/where the event was happening. The days before the 31st we took kids over to the Middle and High School to read their announcements over the loudspeaker there and some stayed at the elementary building to do announcements, also. We had signs all over the schools. I ordered 15 Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand books that parents bought for Christmas presents for their kids. I have parents telling me that they still want to help me in the years to come even though I won’t have their children anymore in class!

We just have been so touched here and I thank you again for allowing us to do something so amazing with you and your foundation!

Sincerely,
Jennifer Rhoades

Kevin Lacey (9) and Colin Lacey (5) for the past two years have held a special Alex’s Lemonade Donation Birthday party in lieu of birthday gifts! This year the Lacey boys along with two other 9 year olds, John Gavin and Tyler Adolf joined forces on October 21 and raised over $800.00 for this most worthy of causes and each one feels great about making a difference.

Mrs. Lacey writes, “This started last year with my two sons. Their 2 friends joined in the crusade this year. I have already spoken to two other mothers who want to join in next year, which would make 5 boys giving up their birthday presents in lieu of donations. How great! The boys had a ball. 44 friends and family members swam for 4 hours at ACAC in West Chester, ate pizza and hoagies and washed it all down with lemonade (of course!) Everyone was exhausted at the end, especially the parents!”

Above: Nina & Trinity

My husband and daughter had talked about a lemonade stand all summer long. The very day that my daughter, Trinity, 6 had started drawing plans for a lemonade stand we decided to dine at Applebee's. We began reading about Alex's courageous story in the children's menu. We decided at that very moment that we wanted to help!

As Vice President of the AT&T Pioneers, I then brought it to the attention of our company's volunteer program. We decided to also take it on as a Pioneer project for our local. Our lemonade stand then grew by leaps and bounds by including inflatable slides, basket raffles, bake sales, face painting and much more.

Three weeks before our event we read about a local 4 year old little girl named, Taylor Holweger, who is battling a rare form of leukemia. We read in the newspaper how Minda Gray and her son Nolan had previously held a lemonade stand to raise donations for Taylor. I knew from that moment on that we had to include them in our event and we named the stand in Honor of Taylor, we were blessed with her family and friends be able to share with us in our day.

My daughter became the hit of the event by announcing our park prize give away of AT&T Incredible Phones, Alex's Lemonade T-shirts and sponsor items. She made all the inspiration come together with the team. With the support/inspiration of my family and friends and the Pioneers all helped to make our lemonade stand a success. We had over 35 sponsors and 100 volunteers and raised 2,082 dollars for pediatric cancer. It was such a great heart-warming community event that we are sure to do one again! Thanks so much to everyone who helped us along the way, we can't wait to see you next year!

-Angie Edwards

We had another great season of Curve Baseball this year and it really makes me proud to be sending this email as well as our check for $2,500. Tuesday, September 18th marked the 2 year anniversary of Nate Bettwy's (pictured below)-"our local lemonade kid" as we call him - diagnosis. Nate turned 5 this summer and told us that he was going to get a new bike for his birthday - so we wanted to do something with bikes as soon as we heard that!

Nate and his family helped our ballpark host 3 Alex's Lemonade Stand Days. On those days we decorated the park with yellow balloons, made special PA announcements throughout the game and also passed out a little flyer with our gameday program encouraging people to buy lemonade. We connected the parks on one of the days - Lakemont Park is a separate amusement park right in our back yard - and for $5 we provided transportation to and from the roller coaster in right field. We were also able to get a bike donated from Dick's Sporting Goods, Altoona - we displayed the bike in the kids zone and asked for kids only to make a donation to Alex's Lemonade Stand and in return they could be entered to win the bike. On that same night we passed out bike safety info and had a pre-game Alex's Lemonade Stand Bike Rodeo where Nate was able to show off his new wheels!

On the last night of the season, I was able to help announce our donation that was made possible by our incredible fans. It really was an awesome feeling when you'd see people standing in a long line because they wanted to help. It was even more cool to see them buy 4 at a time or when fans or employees came up to me and said - "hey did you get your lemonade yet?"!

Nate entered Kindergarten this year and as you can see from a recent photo below - still has that infectious smile even after all he's been through. Thank you Alex's Lemonade Stand for giving us an outlet to continue to help kids like Alex. I hope our near future has a cure for all types of cancer...but until then, we'll keep supporting & smiling - one cup at a time!

-Elsie Zengel

On June 8th, 2007 The Addis Group hosted their 2nd Annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand. The first lemonade stand had been an overwhelming success and we wanted to capitalize on that achievement by raising $2,500 this year. Our stand was strategically placed next to a popular lunch spot and we assigned two man teams to strategic intersections within our corporate park. One team member held up a sign and the other had an Alex’s Lemonade Stand bucket. Each stand volunteer was given a t-shirt with an Alex’s Lemonade Stand coloring page colored by children of The Addis Group employees. It was a great success!

Our Alex’s Lemonade stand was such a joy to run. The lemonade stand was a great team builder and gave us an opportunity to get to know people from other departments. We had a great time and raised money for an amazing cause. We were touched by the generosity of our co-workers, friends and strangers. This year we were able to exceed our goal and raised over $2,600.

The employees of The Addis Group would like to extend a big thank you to the staff members and volunteers who make holding a lemonade stand fun and easy.

-Alison Ritchie