Alex's Lemonade Stand Fund Hits $1 Million Mark
Proceeds Go To Researching Childhood Cancer
http://www.wpbfnews.com/health/3906162/detail.html
UPDATED: 10:16 AM EST November 10, 2004
PHILADELPHIA -- A young girl's goal to raise $1 million this year for cancer research by selling lemonade has been met three months after her death.
Alexandra Scott dreamed of raising $1 million with her lemonade stand and the many run in her honor across the country. When she died at age 8, Alex's Lemonade Stand was $300,000 short of her goal, but a bittersweet ceremony Tuesday marked the completion and surpassing of that goal. The money will go to help children with cancer.
Alex set up her first stand to raise money for cancer-research institutions four years ago, the year she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of childhood cancer.
She took in $2,000 that first year and $200,000 through 2003. Now her parents say they expect lemonade sales from stands across the country this year to come close to $1.5 million.
Alex's friends and family gathered at her school in Wynnewood, Pa., and talked about what the hopeful little girl's life meant to them and to the world, reported WCAU-TV in Philadelphia.
"Alex was a great hero and she was a great person to look up to," said Daniel, a fifth-grader.
"She was just an amazing girl," said Julia, also a fifth-grader.
"I want to do a lemonade stand like her," said Tiara, a first-grader.
Alex would have been in the third grade this year at Penn Wynne Elementary School, but on Aug. 1, she lost her lifelong battle with neuroblastoma -- an aggressive childhood cancer. But Alex's courage and conviction to help other kids with cancer lives on.
"I'm probably going to have a couple lemonade stands, because she was so special," said Sarah, a fifth-grader.
Volvo Cars of North America and people across the country helped Alex's Lemonade Stand Fun to hit its mark.
"It's a celebration of Alex and her dream, and the power that one little person can have to take a simple idea and make a big difference in the world," said Jay Scott, Alex's dad.
"I think she would just say, 'Thank you,'" said Liz Scott, Alex's mother. "She never took credit for doing this because she recognized it was the effort on behalf of countless number of people who got her goal met, so she would just say, 'Thank you.'"
Each year, Volvo will honor a young hero -- a child like Alex who shows special character in helping others -- with the Alexandra Scott Butterfly Award. The butterfly is meant to be a symbol of Alex's life and how she touched so many people. If you would like to nominate a child for the award, visit Volvo's Web site at
www.volvoforlifeaward.com.
"Butterflies seemed to come up again and again," Liz Scott said. "The last day of her life, then as we were planning for her service and afterwards. We really started to feel that the butterfly represented Alex's spirit to us and Volvo was really inspired by that."
Before she died, Alex said her goal would be to raise $5 million next year, and there are a lot of people out there who will do their best to make that wish come true.
Alex's Lemonade Stands For Pediatric Cancer:
Nominate A Child For The Alexandra Scott Butterfly Award
Alex's Lemonade Crusade, how to donate
Book: "Alex and the Amazing Lemonade Stand"
Alex Coffee (Profits go to researching pediatric cancer)
Lemonade Necklace (Profits go to researching pediatric cancer)
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