Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer

Thank you to everyone who participated in the very first ALSF Fundraiser Voting Project!

In addition to research grants that ALSF gives, there is also a great need for smaller funding for research supplies and equipment as well as items to support families. With so many great choices for ways to help, we thought - why not put some of the power to decide where the funds go in the hands of our volunteers?

Based upon the percentage of votes that each project received from our 2009 fundraising volunteers, here is how the $25,000 will be awarded:

• Project 4-21.38% ($5345)
• Project 5-15.86% ($3965)
• Project 6-15.86% ($3965)
• Project 7-13.79% ($3447.50)
• Project 2-11.38% ($2845)
• Project 1-9.31% ($2327.50)
• Project 10-6.9% ($1725)
• Project 8-3.45% ($862.50)
• Project 3-1.38% ($345)
• Project 9-0.69% ($172.50)

Hopefully, this project gave you a taste of what it is like to grant money to a project that you feel passionate about, and you feel that you had say in where the money you raised went! To learn more about our grants process and where other funding has gone, please click here.

Thank you for deciding where these funds will go, and for raising the money to help children that are fighting cancer, their families and the researchers who are working to find a cure. We look forward to sending them the funds over the next few weeks.

Project Summaries

Project 1

The incubator is necessary to grow tumor tissue samples in the laboratory. These samples are needed for childhood cancer research experiments.

Project 2

This piece of equipment will be used to prepare cancer samples from children for genetic analysis. This machine is critical to make sure that the samples are properly prepared to determine the key mutations that impact the child’s prognosis or treatment.

Project 3

Educational conferences are a great way to help childhood cancer researchers learn from their peers. This project will help to send one promising young researcher to an international educational conference.

Project 4

This project will purchase Trk inhibitor to be used in neuroblastoma research. Trk-B is a protein that is on the surface of unfavorable neuroblastomas. Neuroblastomas depend on the activation of this receptor to survive. When you inhibit this receptor, they die, or they at least become easier to kill.

Project 5

This project will buy toys & DVDs to be used by childhood cancer patients to take their mind off their treatment while in the hospital.

Project 6

This project will buy meal vouchers for families of childhood cancer patients. This will help to alleviate some of the financial pressure on these families.

Project 7

A PCR machine allows very small amounts of DNA to be expanded to create a much larger amount of DNA to allow analysis of precious samples, such as DNA from rare cancers. This technology has so revolutionized scientific research that its inventor won the Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1993.

Project 8

Eppendorf Robot Attachment - used for automated sample preparation in a study of the role of Telomerase in Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. This speeds up the research process.

Project 9

Used to continuously shake experiment flasks. This is needed to complete experiments.

Project 10

Used to scan slides from experiments into the computer. This will allow researchers to share their slides with other researchers and increase collaboration.