Taking a moment for inspiration

On this fall Friday, as we are all busily working and preparing for the weekend, we thought it might be an appropriate time to share some inspiration and motivation with all of our supporters. As we all know, the battle against childhood cancer is a daunting one, and at times we all suffer from a sense of helplessness, but we know that we must soldier on. As long as there are kids fighting cancer, we must continue to find inspiration and motivation to help move toward finding better treatments and ultimately cures.

Here are just a few of the ways that we can all find that spark to keep us going, and remind us of exactly why we are here.

1) Attend lemonade stands and fundraising events. Volunteer-run lemonade stands are really something special. Often taking place on evenings and weekends, they are easily accessible and allow us all to see volunteers in action, especially the young ones. Whether it is a huge stand/event or a small birthday stand, it really exemplifies what Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is all about!

2) Visit our mailroom to read some of the letters we receive from stand hosts! These letters and photos provide a view into the efforts and experiences of our lemonade stand hosts. They may just inspire you to hold a stand too!



3) Check out our featured hero. Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation features a new hero on our website at least once a week - these kids are amazing and we are here to make sure they have the best chance at surviving and living long healthy lives. Keep visiting our site to learn about these children who have fought or are currently fighting cancer.

4) Visit www.AlexsLemonade.org – if you have free time, or are just looking for something to read while drinking your morning coffee – inspiration abounds from our website. Here are some suggested pages to visit - events pages, the photo galleries or check out the guestbook.

5) Instead of watching television one evening, go to the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation YouTube channel or search for us on YouTube. There are some pretty interesting videos that have been posted about ALSF and the efforts of stand hosts around the country and world.

6) Watch the Alex Scott documentary. If you have not seen this yet or need to be reminded of why the battle against childhood cancer is so important, this is a “must see.” You can see a three minute introduction of this on YouTube, and if you like, we can send you a copy of the 30 minute version!

We hope you will take the time to explore some of these suggestions. We are entering the last few months of the year, and there is still a lot of work to be done before 2011 rolls around. Everyone at Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is working hard to make this our most successful year yet, and we simply couldn’t do it without you. When you think of the support you have given and continue to give to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, remember that everything we do is for something far bigger and greater than ourselves.

Someday, we will all be able to say we helped cure childhood cancer.

Have an inspired day!

- Liz Scott, Alex’s mom

Upcoming Events!

Happy Monday everyone! We hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend. We also wanted to take this opportunity to remind you about some of our upcoming events, which represent just a few of the ways you can continue to be involved throughout the fall and winter months.

4th Annual Celebrity Casino Night



The Jason Matthew Salon will partner with ALSF to host a Celebrity Casino Night on Thursday, October 28 in Philadelphia. This fun event will feature local fare, amazing prizes and of course Roulette, Craps, Blackjack, and Poker dealt by local personalities. There will be some amazing prizes up for grabs including trips to Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Nantucket. Among the famous faces that will be in the crowd: NBC 10’s Lu Ann Cahn & John Clark, CBS 3’s Pat Ciarrocchi, ABC 6’s Nydia Han, FOX 29’s Mike Jerrick, Comcast Sportsnet’s Dei Lynam, My 106.1’s Donna Storm and many more. Making the evening even more special, Casino Night will act as an early preview to Halloween and while costumes aren’t mandatory, small prizes will be given for the best!

>> Buy tickets here!

Boo-tastic Lemonade Stand



Get in the Halloween spirit this year by raising funds and awareness for ALSF! Though we are calling it a Boo-tastic Lemonade Stand, you don’t even necessarily have to hold a lemonade stand to get involved! All you need to do is gather your friends and family to help scare away childhood cancer by raising money to support the foundation. Your Boo-tastic stand can be as simple as a small “spookified” stand on Halloween to something as grand as a full-on Halloween block party complete with haunted house.

>> Visit our website for ways to get involved this Halloween season!

L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade


Following in the footsteps of the wildly successful Great Chefs Event held annually in Philadelphia, Chefs Suzanne Goin & Chef David Lentz will bring culinary greats together in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 7 from 12– 4PM at Culver Studios in Culver City, California. Deemed L.A. Loves Alex’s Lemonade, the event, sponsored by Volvo, will invite foodies from all corners of the globe for an afternoon of fantastic fare, cocktails for a cause, a live auction and much more. Among the chefs participating will be Marc Vetri, Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis, John Besh, Paul Kahan, Jonathan Waxman and many others.

>> Learn more or buy tickets!

Lemon Run



ALSF will host the 2nd Annual Lemon Run 5K, presented by Volvo, on Sunday, November 14 at 8:30AM. The event, which will move location to Memorial Hall in beautiful Fairmount Park, will include a 5K run/walk and a kids’ race. The run and walk fee for those who register in advance is $25 per person, and the kids’ race (under 12 years) is $10 per child. Fees the day of will be $30 and $15 respectively. As an added incentive to register online, the first 1,000 people to register will receive a free limited edition Lemon Run t-shirt! If you are not in the Philadelphia area, not to worry, you can participate virtually by running or walking in your neighborhood that same day!

>> Register now!

Strawberry Shortcake Continues!



As you may recall, ALSF teamed up with Strawberry Shortcake in September to raise awareness for National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. We are pleased to report that this partnership will continue throughout the month of October! Thus far, over 200 volunteers have held Strawberry Alex’s Lemonade Stands, and we are hoping to reach 300 by the end of the month. Remember, that for each of the first 300 stands registered, Strawberry Shortcake will directly donate $50 to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation!

>> Help us reach our goal!

A Visit To Huntsman Cancer Institute

Researchers with ALSF hero families at Huntsman Cancer Institute

Our daughter Alex wanted to help find a cure for all kids with cancer. After battling the disease for more than half her life, she decided to set up lemonade stands to help doctors on their way to doing just that. It is our honor to continue what she started through our medical grants program, and we are so pleased to have thousands of volunteers around the country who host lemonade stands and events to allow us to fund promising research. Recently, one of our staff members traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah to meet with some of our researchers. While she was there she also visited a Grand Stand in the area. Here is a short account of her trip.

- Liz & Jay Scott

On Friday, September 17, I traveled to Salt Lake City to meet with Nikolaus Trede, M.D., Ph.D., and Joshua Schiffman, M.D., both of the Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), who have received Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation grants. I had the privilege of hearing why these doctors decided to go into pediatric cancer research. Among the things they attribute to pushing them into the field - they felt that although cancer is fair to no one, kids who get cancer are just that much more ripped off because they have less time to live healthy. One of the other researchers I met that day, Dr. Kimble Frazer, said specifically, “If you tell someone they have to get cancer and you give them the choice between getting it as a 60-year-old or a 6-year-old, they will almost always choose as a 60-year-old! That is why childhood cancer research is important.” That really got to me and gave me a great deal of perspective.


Nikolaus Trede, M.D., Ph.D in his lab at HCI

Everyone I spoke with really seemed to like their job and their enjoyment/excitement wore off on me. To be able to spend that much time with the researchers was fascinating, inspiring, and quite an honor! They are people too - just really smart people who care a lot about helping families and their children get better. Going behind the scenes to see exactly where they work allowed me to see where the money I help to raise goes. It was quite motivating.

The very next day, I went to the Torres family Grand Stand. This is the first year that the Torres family has held a Grand Stand, and it was amazing! Their daughter Brinley is currently fighting childhood cancer, and they held this event in her honor. I was astonished at how hard the Torres family and their extended family worked to prepare the details of their Grand Stand which included prizes, volunteers, supplies, music, activities, food, advertising and so much more. The entire family welcomed me with open arms and made me feel a part of the group. Their energy was contagious! Kristen, Brinley’s mom, said that if people only realized what it was truly like for a child to experience cancer, everyone would be screaming from the rooftops to find a cure right away! When I saw the poster she created with photos and statistics of how much Brinley and the family had been through, I better understood what she meant.



What a wonderful and eye opening trip this was for me. I was able to meet with researchers who are working toward cures, as well as a family who may be directly impacted by such research. This really brought everything into perspective for me and reminded me of just why Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation exists.

- Jennifer Kelly