Dear Friends and Family,

I am honored to share with you that for the first time ever, I will be running the Chicago Marathon, October 7th, 2018, in support of Alex's Lemonade Stand. The mission of Alex's Lemonade Stand is to change the lives of children with cancer through impactful research, raising awareness, supporting families, and empowering everyone to help cure childhood cancer. The Foundation was created by one little girl diagnosed with cancer named Alex, who at the age of 4, wanted to set up a lemonade stand to raise funds to give to the doctors to help them find a cure.

Since Alex set up her first lemonade stand in 2000- truly exemplifying the saying "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade"-  the organization has raised more than $150million to 1) fund cutting-edge research projects at 135 institutions and 2) create a travel program to help support families of children receiving treatment. 

As you know, running in the name of organizations that support cancer research is near and dear to my heart, in memory of my mother Sandy who passed from brain cancer in 2003. A shining star and my best friend, she embodied the lemons to lemonade credo, and was an avid champion for children suffering from childhood cancers.

To date, #teamsandy has raised over $21k toward the fight to #endcancer of all types. For this race, I have committed to $2000, for her, my own health, and all those children suffering from this terrible disease. Every day, 42 children are diagnosed with cancer, without discrimination against gender, race or socioeconomic class. It is currently the leading cause of death by disease amongst children.

Though progress has been made, there still remains much to be done. You can help. 

I hope that you will join me in my support of Alex's Lemonade Stand through a donation of $26.20 ($1/mile) on my behalf. However, please note that any gift, no matter the amount, will help us get one step closer to finding a cure for this debilitating disease.

Until there is a cure for all cancers, #thereisnofinishline.

Thank you in advance for your support!  

Always, Dolores, Jay, Mateo, and baby Chase.