On May 2, 2009 we held our first annual National Walk-a-thon for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation in honor of our son, Brett Staino. The walk was held at the Cape May County Park and Zoo rain or shine. Thankfully the rain held out until after our walk was complete! We had about sixty walkers come out and participate in our event. We had the walk, a traditional lemonade stand, information tables including our local pediatric cancer fund, merchandise table and plenty of hand outs for the walkers; including water, fruit and Tshirts - all of which were donated from very generous sponsors. Our sponsors included; Office Basics, InnerWorkings, Sturdy Bank, Seashore Fruit and Produce, Countrytime Lemonade, and NovaCare. The event turned out great! Although the suspected rain might of held some planned participants back - we still had a great showing and did very well in donations! We also had a special guest speaker - Miss Anjelica Nardi who currently holds the title for Miss Heartland (Cumberland, Gloucester, and Salem Counties in NJ). She is running for Miss New Jersey and then hopefully if all goes well, Miss America - we're routing for you Jellie! Miss Heartland is a great person and did a very nice speech for our walkers in sharing her own personal story of being a cancer survivor herself. We thank Miss Heartland for coming out and joining our team. We hope she will consider joining us every year as we plan on making this event larger and larger as each year goes on. So, even though the weather wasn't favorable, we still managed to raise $4735 for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, not too shabby for our first round! Thank you again to all of you who contributed and participated. We were honored to hold this event in Alex's memory and Brett's honor and just hope to continue her mission for years to come! Thank you Alex for being such an inspiration and hope to many - we love you!CBS 3 interviewed my son Brett and I during ALSF's Telethon 6/11/09. They had asked for us to tell his story and how giving to this foundation can assist families struggling with childhood cancer. This was an amazing experience and we were honored to do it for Alex, our hero!The Early Education Center is hosting an Alex's Lemonade Stand in honor of Brett Staino, a student in our center's toddler room. Brett was diagnosed in March 2008 with Stage 3 Wilm's Tumor, a form of pediatric cancer. After surgery and months of radical treatment, Brett returned to his classroom earlier this year and is enjoying being an active toddler. Brett still faces a long road ahead of him where he will continue testing and monitoring. His family has been very active in raising money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, CHOP and the Brendan Borek Foundation as a way to give back to everyone who helped them during this difficult time. The children and staff at the Early Education Center would also like to support these organizations. The children at the center will be working during the month of July to build their lemonade stand and will be learning about helping others with the highlight being hosting their lemonade stand on July 30th. We would like to encourage everyone to come out and support our stand and help in finding a cure for childhood cancer.
The Stand was a great success raising over $1300 for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation!!!!
The children had a wonderful time and worked very hard in creating their special stand.
Thank you to all who have contributed in making this such a remarkable event!
