The Lemon Run finds its Stride…

Last Sunday, we hosted our first annual Lemon Run – a 5K Run, Family Fun Walk and Kids' Race. Through the years, we have added various fundraising events (beside lemonade stands, of course) in an effort to raise as much money as possible for these amazing kids. We have a formal gala, The Lemon Ball and a “foodie” event The Great Chefs Event, so adding a 5K to get folks outside and moving seemed like a natural next step!

In the days prior to the event there was an abundance of excitement, which seemed to coincide with some nerves. The weather was of course our main concern, as we certainly couldn’t tent the entire course! Both Friday and Saturday were a complete wash, but when we woke up on Sunday something had changed. We started set up in the dark, but by 7AM, the sun was shining brightly for what would turn out to be the perfect day for a run. The sun wasn’t the only thing shining on Sunday, there were hundreds, scratch that, a thousand participants shining a light on the cause of childhood cancer. We were joined by hero families, familiar faces, and a lot of new ones too. In addition to everyone at Ridley Creek State Park on Sunday, there were nearly 100 virtual participants who woke up early in their own neighborhoods to run the 5K at the very same time we were. I am thrilled to report that the first Lemon Run raised over $50,000, which is quite an accomplishment for year one.

A big thank you to everyone who came out as well as those who joined us virtually! For those of you who couldn’t join us, we have put together a video that we think captures the day.

PS – see how many people you can find wearing Lemon Costumes!

- Liz Scott, Alex's Mother

Childhood Cancer Charities Unite

As I sit here writing this blog, I can't believe that it has been a year since Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation organized the first Childhood Cancer Charity Summit in our hometown of Philadelphia. We have accomplished so much since that time that you would think this partnership was forged years ago. On Monday, October 19, 2009, hosted by the Iron Matt Foundation, we came together for our third face to face meeting, for what is now known as Childhood Cancer Charities Unite (C3U).

3rd Meeting of C3U in Hoboken, NJ

Back in October of 2008, we held the first summit bringing together childhood cancer charities from across the country to brainstorm ways to find better treatments and ultimately cures…NOW. I will admit that though we had high hopes initially, we didn’t know where this experiment might lead. The idea was that if we came together and pooled our resources, we could move faster and go farther in making a difference in the lives of children facing cancer. That first meeting brought together 20 organizations that focus their efforts on funding childhood cancer research.

12 of these organizations attended the meeting outside of New York City on Monday, to tackle the priorities we had set previously. We now have structured committees and are taking strides to address the issues of research, grants, information sharing and mission development.

I am thrilled to say that we now have a mission and a logo!

Childhood Cancer Charities Unite is a national collaboration of leading nonprofit organizations working together to raise awareness and advance research in an effort to find a cure for childhood cancer.

What started as an idea has been put into action, and we are making tangible progress. I truly believe that by collaborating through Childhood Cancer Charities Unite, we are so much stronger and we will find a cure for all the children with cancer faster.

Childhood Cancer Charities Unite Participant List:

• Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation


• Bear Necessities


• The Butterfly Foundation


• Caitlin Robb Foundation


• Children’s Brain Tumor Foundation


• Children's Neuroblastoma Cancer Foundation


• Cord Foundation


• Curing Kids Cancer


• Hope Street Kids


• I Care I Cure


• IronMatt


• The Ishan Gala Foundation


• Magic Water Project


• The Pediatric Cancer Foundation


• PLGA


• Rally Foundation


• Sarcoma Foundation of America


• Solving Kids' Cancer


• St. Baldrick's Foundation


• Super Jake Foundation

- Jay Scott, Alex's Dad

Bloggin' from Blog World!

Jay Scott at Blog World 2009

I am writing this from Blog World in Las Vegas. Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation was lucky enough to win a trip to Blog World ( thanks to our devoted supporters who voted for us). It is the largest conference focused on learning about using the internet and social media. We won the trip from Name Your Cause in a contest that focused on getting online votes. I came to Las Vegas expecting to learn a lot from the courses that are being offered. What I had not planned on was meeting so many great people.

The first day of the conference I was invited to sit on a panel and share how ALSF was using social media to help fight childhood cancer. I was inspired beyond belief by the people I sat on the panel with. They included Meaghan from Spirit Jump. Spirit Jump is an organization that lends a helping hand to people who are battling cancer. Read about Meaghan and how she was inspired to start this organization during her own battle with cancer while in law school.

I also met Drew Olanoff from Blame Drew's Cancer. He was diagnosed with cancer this year and decided to let people blame anything they wanted on "his" cancer. He refused to let his cancer get the best of him and has inspired many cancer fighters to do the same. And, I forgot to mention, that he is the centerpiece of getting Drew Carey to raise $1 Million for LiveStrong.

Perhaps the highlight of my trip so far has been meeting Jon Loomer. He came up and introduced himself and we immediately hit it off. His son Michael and my daughter Alex both had neuroblastoma. Thankfully, Michael is now 8 years old and doing great. Michael also has two brothers Ryan and J.J. Although we had never met, Jon and his family live in the Denver area and have been hosting Alex's Lemonade stands for 5 years; his son is featured as a childhood cancer hero on the ALSF web site. It is because of people like Jon, Michael and their family that we are inspired to work so hard to fight childhood cancer. Thanks for inspiring us!

Finally, Alex’s Lemonade Stand is part of an attempt by Blog World to set a Guinness World record for "most shared social message" and we are included in a charity smackdown (of the nicest kind, of course). Be sure to check it out, be a part of it, and donate for ALSF to win!

What a trip so far ! More great stuff to come from Blog World!

Jay Scott, Executive Director of ALSF, aka Alex’s Dad, blogging from Blog World
#beatcancer

Twilight Star Shows Support

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend my first Peter Facinelli event benefitting Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer. For those of you who may not be familiar, Peter is an actor currently starring in the Twilight movies, and the Nurse Jackie series on Showtime. Though my husband Jay had already been to the autograph signing in Middletown, New York, I had been at another foundation event, so this was my first chance to meet Peter and witness firsthand the unbelievable support he incites for us.

The event was held in Harrisburg, at the aptly titled Harrisburg Mall, last Sunday, October 4, 2009. When I first got to the mall, I was quite simply amazed by the amount of people in line. It is estimated that there were over 2,000 fans there awaiting their chance to meet Peter and possibly have their photo taken with him. For a moment, I wondered why people would wait in a line that long for just a few moments with their favorite star. It didn’t take long for that question to be answered – I saw firsthand how Peter’s involvement with ALSF brings an entirely new element to the event – and a very important one at that. The event was not only about meeting Peter, but it was also about connecting people to each other, to the movies and books they love, to helping each other, and to being part of something bigger. Everyone who attended that event - whether they waited in line, or just took a few moments to see what was going on – was connected to something much bigger.

This is when I share with you that this one event, at one mall, with one amazing celebrity, raised over $11,000 for the battle against childhood cancer. The monetary number isn’t the only part of the story though; there was also a huge amount of awareness raised that day. I was asked to speak to the crowd, which was a great honor, Peter also told everyone how to get involved, we held a lemonade stand, and I could tell that at the end of the day, these fans would in fact get involved.

Here is only one example of that -

After the event, I received an email from a young woman who wants to get involved. In fact, she is one of the girls in the below photo. She summed up just how special this event was to Peter’s fans and to anyone who heard about it:

"If someone like Peter Facinelli can fly across the country during his incredibly busy schedule to help this organization, why can't I? Why can't we all? What is so important in our lives that we can't find time to do good?"


To be moved like that by meeting someone, certainly seems like it is worth a few hours of line waiting! A big thank you to everyone who came out, everyone who supports the foundation, and of course to Peter Facinelli for his unwavering support. We look forward to many more opportunities to work with Peter, and to meet his amazing fans! It is an honor to have them support us.

- Liz Scott, Alex's Mom

The Importance of September

As we approach the fall, and we look back at our recent activities, including our children’s first day of school, it is hard not to think about how very different the lives of children with cancer and their families are. Whether it is nursery school, kindergarten or even senior year of high school, we send our children off to prepare for the future dreams that await them every September. But what if they didn’t have the chance to partake in such a normal activity? For over 12,000 families whose children are diagnosed with cancer every year in this country, this isn’t merely a question - it is a harsh reality.

Why is this more relevant now than ever? Because this is such an important time in our country for families fighting childhood cancer, as well as all families who may someday face an illness they hadn’t anticipated. September was National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and it also represented an important time in the future health care of the country. President Obama had originally set a September deadline for producing a bill on health care reform, which when it comes to fruition, will surely affect the way we fight childhood cancer.

If you have watched the news lately, you know that President Obama is busy spending his days talking about the future health care of the United States. As he makes speeches at different venues in different cities around the US, he often pulls at the heart strings of his audience by using examples of families whose children have been affected by an illness. These stories often end in the family facing bankruptcy, or battling with their insurance companies for the medicines and treatments that their children need. These are in his own words, “the voices of the millions upon millions of Americans who quietly struggle every day with a system that often works better for the health-insurance companies than it does for them.”

We could easily be one of these voices – our late daughter, Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004), founder of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, was diagnosed with a form of childhood cancer before her first birthday. As young parents, we would quickly begin to collect credit card debt, opting to provide our daughter with the medications and treatments that might save her life, whether the insurance company was willing to pay for them or not. We saw first hand the challenges of our health care system, but we also saw how when done right, hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies can work together to improve lives. We saw doctors provide the best quality of care for children without regard to cost; we received a personal phone call from a case manager at our insurance company to inform of us that they would in fact pay a large claim; even the pharmacist at the hospital worked with the insurance company to make sure we could obtain a new drug for Alex that was not covered under our plan.

Through our daughter’s seven year battle with cancer, we witnessed families struggling with high out of pocket costs, low wages and being denied potentially life saving treatments due to lack of insurance. We also saw the polar opposite when insurance companies or state-funded programs paid for life saving treatments for children without hesitation. The bottom line was and still remains, that while we might not have all the answers, the United States has all the components to improve upon an already outstanding health care system. No one should be denied health care because of their inability to pay for it, but fixing this problem requires all parties to come together – including doctors, health care professionals, hospitals, insurance companies, and most importantly, the people that the health care system is supposed to serve.

Thankfully, childhood cancer is becoming a survivable disease, though there is still so much work to be done to find better treatments and cures. Nearly 80% of children diagnosed with cancer will survive, but the medical costs that families endure throughout their battle and follow-up will continue to linger. Additionally, children often face lifelong complications and the development of chronic health problems due to their disease and subsequent treatment. The best quality of health care is imperative to children fighting this disease, and to all other children and families who face long term illnesses. It is time for this country to come to an agreement to protect ourselves and especially our children from suffering the long term financial effects of a serious illness.

As we move out of September, with the battle against childhood cancer fresh in our minds, let’s also recognize how important health care reform is. If we could stop the partisanship and finger pointing that only emphasizes our differences, and serves only to divide us, we would get to the core of this issue - that everyone deserves to have access to good medical care. The process will no doubt be a learning process, but one that is imperative to start now.

Liz and Jay Scott,
parents of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer founder Alexandra “Alex” Scott.