Welcome to Alex's Lemonade Stand

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Money magazine is proud to be a supporter of the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). This year Money staffers organized more than a dozen lemonade stands across the country to raise awareness and funds for ALSF. From New York to Atlanta to Los Angeles, Money staffers have put time and energy toward telling clients and colleagues about Alex Scott's story, and the work her parents Liz and Jay do through the foundation. Please enjoy viewing some of the photos taken at these events, mixed in with images from Alex's original lemonade stand held this past June in Wynnewood, Pa. We thank all the ad agencies that let us host lemonade stands in their offices, as well to our sponsors— Volvo and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center— for joining us and the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation in the fight against childhood cancer.

Zoe Abrahams, spent the four-year anniversary of their son Lorenzo’s death from childhood cancer selling lemonade in San Diego’s Balboa Park. On a warm, sunny day this past May, they raised $10,000 for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a three-year-old organization dedicated to helping young cancer patients and their families, and a $9,000 matching gift from the Waitt Family Foundation, Rissolo’s employer. “When the first anniversary of his passing came, it seemed only natural to take the phone off the hook and draw the shades,” says Rissolo. “We realized that was not right. It was not what our son would have wanted us to do.” So he and his wife instead made it an annual tradition to do the lemonade stand with other family members, in honor of the spirited and joyful 16-month-old boy they lost. “This is the right way for us to honor his memory,” says Rissolo, now the father of a 20-month-old son and a newborn. Rissolo and others whose lives have been touched by childhood cancer have a direct and effective way to contribute to a cure because of the work of Liz and Jay Scott. The couple established Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation after losing their eight-year-old daughter, Alexandra, to cancer not long after Lorenzo died. Their mission is to close gaps in research and treatment that other programs don’t address. Having raised more than $20 million, the foundation now provides grants to hospitals such as The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, one of the world’s most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention.

It was the Scotts’ daughter, known as Alex, who came up with the idea to raise money for research. After a stem cell transplant the day after her fourth birthday, the little girl announced to her mother that when she got out of the hospital she wanted to set up a lemonade stand to help doctors find a cure for all childhood cancers. When she set up her first one later that year, she raised $2,000. She donated it to her local children’s hospital, where she had been treated for neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. As Alex held yearly lemonade stands in front of her house, the word spread, and others—from friends to elementary school classes—began to organize their own. With their help, she raised $1 million to help find a cure for the disease that would ultimately take her life in 2004. The Scotts created Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation just a few months later to continue their daughter’s mission. “Childhood cancer is the No. 1 disease that kills children in the U.S.,” notes Liz Scott. “More than 12,000 children will be diagnosed this year in the U.S. alone.” With volunteers holding over 4,000 lemonade stands annually, the foundation has had a large impact. Its grants pay for research by both established experts and promising young investigators. It has also pioneered “infrastructure” grants to pay salaries for highly trained nurses and other support personnel to work with children in clinical trials. Next on their agenda: Setting up a prestigious fellowship in pediatric oncology. “All of these areas have direct relevance in getting children to where they should be—which is healthy and cancer-free,” says Jay Scott. Childhood cancer receives far fewer research dollars than adult cancers, he notes. The more than $1 million in funding that the Center for Childhood Cancer Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has received from the foundation has helped in hiring nurses and research support personnel for clinical trials, says Dr. John Maris, director. It has also funded important research: Maris and his team recently proved that there is a genetic basis for neuroblastoma. “We have come up with a lot of very exciting data in the last year that is going to help unravel the mystery of the disease pretty dramatically,” says Maris. The Children’s Hospital of Denver has also been able to build up its pediatric clinical trial program—which helps up to 30 patients a year who have run out of treatment options—because of the funding it has received to hire nursing staff, says Dr. Lia Gore, a specialist in pediatric hematology and oncology who runs the program. “These are highly regulated studies,” she notes. “There needs to be one-on-one nursing.”

Corporate support has been essential to the growth of the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Volvo came on board during the early days. The company first learned of Alex Scott in 2003. She’d won one of its Volvo For Life Awards, which honor everyday heroes involved in causes related to safety, quality of life, and the environment, and which provide millions of dollars in charitable contributions to their efforts. “Her story was so compelling it drew us in as a business,” says Doug Speck, president and CEO of Volvo Cars of North America. In her honor, Volvo created the annual Alexandra Scott Butterfly Award, which recognizes extraordinary youth heroes. In 2004 the company helped Alex achieve her goal of raising $1 million to fight pediatric cancer by holding events at its retail stores throughout the country. Today, many Volvo dealerships all over the U.S. still hold their own lemonade stand fundraisers each year. In late June, Volvo also launched a virtual lemonade stand (www.lemonadestandforlife.com), allowing visitors to purchase and send digital cups of lemonade, for just $1 each, to friends and family. “It is important for our people to know they are working for a company that cares,” says Speck. With companies from Applebee’s to Macy’s now involved, the foundation is now on its way to reaching its ten-year goal of raising $100 million. “It is incredible what has already been accomplished,” says Liz Scott.