Alexandra Scott & the $80 m. Lemonade Stand

Alexandra Scott & the $80 m. Lemonade Stand

By Shlomo  Maital

Alexandra Scott

   The next time you think about tackling a hard problem you really care about, but hesitate because the odds are long – I hope you’ll remember this story.

       Alexandra “Alex” Scott was born in Connecticut in 1996.  Before she turned one year old, she was diagnosed with infant neuroblastoma,  a type of childhood cancer that attacks nerve cells and is hard to treat. 

      In 2000, just after turning 4 years old, she informed her mother she wanted to start a lemonade stand to raise money for doctors to “help other kids, like they helped me.”   

       Her first lemonade stand raised $2,000.  It led to  Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.     Alex continued her lemonade stands project throughout her life, and eventually she raised over $1 million toward cancer research!

      Alex lost her fight.   She died in August 2004;  she was only  8. Today, Alex’s Lemonade Stand sponsors a national fundraising weekend every June called Lemonade Days.

    Each year, 10,000 volunteers at more than 2,000 Alex’s Lemonade Stands around the nation make a difference for children with cancer.  Some $80 m. has been raised so far.   As they say – that’s not chopped liver.   

    Life gave Alex lemons…and she literally made lemonade, giving new meaning to that old cliché.