Fundraiser Details
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Welcome to the 5th Annual Rogers Family Lemonade Stand! We will be holding our annual Lemonade Stand on Saturday May 19, 2018 to help raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). Last year more than 200 people attended and helped us to raise more than $12,100. Our goal in 2018 is to raise $20,500!
This year, the efforts of our stand hit particularly close to home as 3-year old William Anderson, a student at Union United preschool (where our kids attended and Nicolle now teaches) was diagnosed with Wilms Tumor. Wilms Tumor is a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children. Approximately 500 cases of Wilms Tumor are diagnosed in the United States each year, typically in children 3-4 years of age.
We are excited to recognize William as the hero of our 5th annual lemonade stand. In honor of William, all of the funds raised at our 2018 lemonade stand will be given to ALSF and ear marked for Wilm’s Tumor research.
In the words of William’s mom Ashley, here is his story….
On October 25th, 2017, William woke up from an afternoon nap complaining about his right side hurting. After talking with his pediatrician, we loaded him and his six year old sister Clare up and went to the pediatric after hours urgent care. My husband Cory met us there and we left being assured that he didn’t have appendicitis and that it was most likely nothing.
Fast forward three weeks to Saturday, November 18th, when he woke up in the morning with blood in his urine. This time when the pediatrician’s office suggested the after hours urgent care we decided to go to the ED instead. Everyone, including mom and dad, assumed he had kidney stones, albeit odd for a three year old. Never once did cancer cross our minds. That is, until he had an abdominal ultrasound and before we even made it back to the ED room, Child Life specialists were there to whisk away Clare and William in a wagon with popsicles so the doctors could talk to us. All of the doctors (and there were many) were 99% sure he had a Stage 4 Wilms Tumor because a CT scan later that afternoon confirmed the cancer had spread beyond the right kidney to both lungs and the lymph nodes. That’s when The “Incredible William” replaced William. You see, William LOVES the Incredible Hulk and our small but mighty three year old was about to face his biggest challenge ever and hulk smash cancer.
The next few days were a blur as we settled into our new home away from home on the cancer and blood disorders floor at Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital and waited for a biopsy. The biopsy took place on Tuesday the 21st and we received a second blow of information on Thanksgiving, November 23rd, 2017. That’s when we learned that the doctors were right about the Wilms Tumor; but instead of hulk smashing a cancer with a high success rate and not a terrible treatment plan (in the grand scheme of things), William was going to really have to be Incredible because his Wilms Tumor’s pathology was unfavorable. If this is where you wander off and Google what exactly that means... don’t. Like the head of pediatric oncology told us, “I don’t like statistics because it only takes that ONE to ruin the statistic.” Our family truly believes The Incredible William is going to be that ONE. So far, he’s endured a biopsy and port placement, too many needle sticks to count, CT scans, echocardiograms, ultrasounds, blood and platelet transfusions, and several rounds of chemotherapy. Through all of this he has proven to be remarkably strong and resilient. His future has a lot of scary things - the most pressing one that comes to mind is surgery to remove the right kidney at some point in the near future. His chemotherapy and radiation road map is 31 weeks long...without any hiccups. The side effects of the drugs he’s receiving are daunting. He’s only just begun his cancer journey but we have no doubt The Incredible William is going to be an everyday hero and inspiration to others for many years to come.
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We are with you William—and we’re excited to have you as the hero for our 5th annual lemonade stand. You’re an inspiration for a lot of kids and families and why holding this stand every year is so important.
To all of our friends, family and supporters of ALSF and our lemonade stand, please help us in welcoming William as our 2018 hero and continuing to cheer he and his family on!
As we do every year, we hope to incorporate new themes and ideas into our lemonade stand. This year, our theme is "Plus One"--meaning that we are challenging every single supporter to bring at least one new person along with them to this year's event! If you're unable to make the event, then we challenge you to tell at least one person about our lemonade stand and share the website to help build awareness (and maybe some additional donations if we're lucky!). The hope is that not only will we have fun serving lemonade and bidding on auction items, but also continue build awareness to an even greater degree!
We will continue with our silent auction which will include many exciting items (updated as of 4/15/2018) including:
--Southwest Airlines Gift Card
--Two-night stay at the Inn at USC in Columbia, SC
--Two-night stay at a Brittain's Resort property in Myrtle Beach/Pawley's Island, SC
--USC football tickets
--USC Golf package including USC golf bag, driver cover, putter cover, Titleist Pro VI balls, hat & towel
--2017 Women’s Basketball National Championship ball autographed by Dawn Staley
--Official Men’s & Women’s USC Under Armour sweats
--Mike Trout Old Hickory Baseball Bat
--Nalgene Novara 2L hydration backpack
--2 Stella & Dot gift baskets
--South Carolina themed paintings by Jim Miles
--Gameroom package including 2 XRocker chairs and 2 video games
--Kids' bath set
--2 lipsense packages
--One month Barre 3 classes
--Dance Dept. Summer Camp
--Oath & Stone Clutch
--Yeti & Starbucks Gift Pack
--Kathy's Kreations Gift Card
If you or someone you know may be interested in donating to the silent auction, please let us know.
We hope that you can help however you are able. Here's a few ways you can be a part of this awesome cause:
1) Come to our lemonade stand on May 19, 2018.
2) Make a donation to Alex's Lemonade through our secure webpage: https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/1399399
3) Send a donation to our house and we will include it with our lemonade stand earnings. 100% of the proceeds we collect at our stand go to Alex's Lemonade Stand--we do not "offset" any of our expenses.
4) Donate or bid on a silent auction item.
5) Be an active "Plus One" advocate by sharing information about our lemonade stand or website with people you know.
Most importantly, we will continue to honor and remember some of our childhood cancer heroes including Taylor Hendrix, Edie Gilger, "Princess Lacey" Holsworth and of course Alex Scott whose vision continues to inspire our family everyday. For information about these unbelievable heroes, visit the following links:
Taylor -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbC9I59N3Jk&feature=youtu.be
Edie -
http://www.alexslemonade.org/hero/edie-gilger
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/one-small-step-in-the-fight-against-childhood-cancer/
Lacey-
