"Dear Jay and Liz,

On behalf of the Nowlan family, I would like to thank you for continuing your daughter Alex’s legacy through Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

By continuing Alex’s mission, we were able to celebrate the memory of our sister, Mary Louise, who passed away in 1975 from a brain tumor.

On July 8th, we held our Alex’s Lemonade Stand, to honor Mary Louise, who would have turned 40 years old on July 14, 2007, had she survived.

Thanks to the generous support of St. Peter’s Church, where we held our Stand, and the entire community, we were able to raise close to $800 at the Stand. We also received $560 in online donations. Also, through the generous support of the South Jersey Men’s Senior Baseball League, in which I play baseball on Sundays, we raised another $800 through donations. Ultimately, we have raised over $2,200 to contribute in the memory of Mary Louise.

Besides the lemonade we had a birthday cake for Mary Louise to celebrate the day and to share with all who came to the stand.

It was a beautiful day to work for such a worthy cause and was enjoyed by all. Thank you.

Sincerely,

J. Kirk Nowlan"

"This is the third year that our family has run a stand for our community in Brigantine, New Jersey weekly through-out the summer!  I am a school teacher and I heard about the foundation when students at my school had run a stand through-out the year for a special project, and the foundation had a little assembly for the whole grade level.  I went home and shared Alex's story with my twin sons who were 9 years old at the time.  I thought they might suggest us holding a stand in the summer.  My son Michael surprised me by suggesting that we ought to hold a stand weekly through-out the summer!  I would never have thought it possible!  I regularly take my summers off to enjoy my family and I do have the time to donate!  To get started, I went to the official web site and learned so much valuable information on how to start the stand and get the community involved in helping out.  My sons and I sought business support and got donations of most needed supplies! 
     We have run our stand every summer since!  We connected with our city government and have gained permission to run our stand at big community events!  Each year, we have learned tricks on how to raise more money for the cause.  Our latest form of success was the addition of a Chinese auction at our events!  Local businesses donate items or gift certificates for us to raffle off at our event.  With donations, people receive raffle tickets based on the level of their donation.  For example, a $5 donation receives one raffle ticket.  A $10 donation receives 5 raffle tickets.  A $20 donation receives 15 raffle tickets.  This encourages larger donations to the cause.  We offer snacks and drinks for the family along with a donation of their choice.  Most families are quite generous! 
     I thought perhaps as my boys got older, they might lose interest in running the stand, but they are happy to help and want to give of their time for this worthy cause.  I am happy that I could support their desire to help others and encourage such volunteerism.  They are now thinking of ways to get other kids involved in volunteering.  Although no children in our family have ever suffered with cancer, I am aware of the disease because it took my grandfather from us.  I know he suffered so much and I can't imagine a child going through that same pain.  I know in my heart that the money we raise will go directly to finding ways to help kids with cancer.  It gives my whole family great joy to help out."     

  -Julie Mandes

Above L to R: Zoe (mother), Dominique (father) holding younger brother, Dario

Above: Couple who got married made time to stop by and support the Rissolo's

"Our third annual stand in Balboa Park, in the heart of San Diego, was a great success. It was an event surrounded by both joy and sadness, as it marked the third anniversary of our son's passing. Like Alex, our little Enzo suffered from neuroblastoma. Together their love touches lives near and far.

We couldn't hope for a more colorful and dynamic location for our stand. Balboa Park is truly the crossroads of San Diego. Families, street musicians, tour groups...even a greyhound club, with all their dogs in tow, stopped by. It's hard to top last year's visit by a thirsty member of the Thai royal family, but a spontaneous bride and groom did sneak away from their wedding party for a celebratory sip of lemonade. 
So many people in San Diego made our stand shine this year. Dearest friends and family, you know who you are and we love you! Special thanks to SD Parks and Rec., Festivities Catering, Rotisserie Affair Catering, and the amazing team of volunteers from HDR Inc.

See you next year!"

- Dominique Rissolo and Zoe Abrahams

Alex's Lemonade Mazda MX-5 Cup Car

"Metropolitan Food service has completed it's fund raising drive for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. Through our fundraising at each of our 7 Colleges and Universities that we serve we were able to raise $2, 135.76 in customer, client and employee donations. Additionally, Metropolitan Food Service purchased approximately $750.00 in Alex's Lemonade merchandise through your website, and sold 100+/- cases of Bottled Alex's Lemonade at each of our locations. I am very excited about the success of the program I put together and look forward to doing it again next year.

Additionally, the P1-Motorsports.com/Alex's Lemonade Race car has had an extremely successful season finishing as high as 4th place in a recent race in Cleveland. We currently are 10th in points this season.

Please let me know if I can be of any additional assistance to you here in NY or at any of my upcoming races."

-John C. Kuitwaard

"We feel so blessed to be part of Alex's plan.  My son, Andrew, looks forward to holding a lemonade stand each year and reading Alex's book to his classmates.

Here he is serving up lemonade......and an additional picture with our neighbor Sam, also undergoing treatment for cancer.  After the event, when we let go of the balloons, Andrew sent a message to Alex (he always sends messages to friends in heaven when he releases balloons) He hoped she liked our stand and was able to have lemonade in heaven.

Thanks for sharing Alex with all of us, we think of her often!"

- Kim Sprague

"A couple of months ago I was turning on cartoons for my daughter when I stumbled upon Alex’s story on the CBS Early Show. I was amazed to see a little girl with so much passion for something so good and important, when she had her own battle to face. My daughter and I watched it together, and she suggested we sell lemonade like she did. I thought what a good idea. 

I found the website and immediately picked a date during Lemonade Days and registered the stand. We were so excited I called my husband at work, and he was excited as well to take part in such a good thing! I called my best friend and my nieces to get them involved.

We explained the story of Alex to the kids, and my daughter was so excited she kept telling everyone we were giving lemonade to sick children—after a while she got it right. We feel so blessed to have children who are healthy and strong, we hope we never have to face a battle like many other families do. That's a big reason why we wanted to help, we would appreciate any help we could receive if ever faced with childhood cancer.

After brainstorming a while we decided to sell paper lemons to start. Then we sent letters to over 80 businesses in our area. Some donated supplies and things to raffle. We sold raffle tickets several weeks leading up to the stand. We had 23 items to raffle when the day came. My husband spent every night after work building our stand, and it came out really well. At the lemonade stand we didn’t just have lemonade—we had a bounce house, face painting, games to win prizes, balloons, a yard sale, a bake sale, and the raffle. At the end of the day the kids tied together a bunch of balloons and made a sign in remembrance of Alex and released them into the sky. It was really touching.

It was so much work getting everything together but when the day came we had 15 people show up to volunteer their time. We had so much fun that day and we all had learned so much doing such a good thing for some kids who needed it. We raised $1,035.23 for the kids and it brought together our family and our community.  It taught our kids to be grateful for what they have and to give all that they can to others as well. It was a lot work but well worth every moment. We hope to make it a yearly event. Thank you for bringing us together to share in something so good!"

- Carrie Wilson

"The Coppinger Family hosted our 4th Annual Alex's Lemonade Stand on June 9th, 2007. My son John, who is presently 9, suggested having a lemonade stand to raise some spending money for himself, when he was 6 years old. He then heard his cousin speak of helping a friend at her Alex's Lemonade Stand. He came to me and told me he wanted to have an Alex's Lemonade Stand. I sat him down and explained to him, if he decided to do this, he could not keep any of the money. He must donate all the money to ALSF. He talked with his sister Michaela, who was 5 at the time, and they both decided that they wanted to donate all the money they raise to help "get a cure for kids with cancer". It touched my heart to think my two small children, who did not personally know any children with cancer, were so eager and willing to help other children.

Since our first stand, unfortunately, we have befriended quite a few children with cancer. We held our stand, this year, in honor of Alexandra Bilotta; she is my friend's daughter, who was diagnosed with Leukemia a couple weeks before Christmas. She is presently undergoing treatment.

Over the past 4 years, our lemonade stand has grown into a party, which family and friends look forward to each year. Smooth Jazz was there from 11 am -1 pm playing music and giving away prizes. Wired 96.5 came from 2-3 pm. They played music and gave away free ice cream and wired prizes. Local merchants and sports teams made donations for our raffle table. We raffled off 19 different prizes this year; a Cole Hamel autographed baseball, a Soul football autographed by Jon Bon Jovi and Ron Jaworski, an Autographed Reggie Brown picture, just to name a few.

Organizing the lemonade stand is hard work, but it is such a good feeling, being so very tired at the end of that long day, knowing your efforts are helping to find a cure for pediatric cancer."

-Michele Coppinger

Caroline Chighizola

Volunteers holding signs at 8th St. & Hwy 395.

Lisa Coffron, the event organizer was in California when she heard about Alex’s Lemonade Stand and saw that Nevada needed a stand for National Lemonade Days and she got the ball rolling...

Shelly Merrick said, "We had our fundraiser on Friday and Saturday last week. Since the girls were in school Friday is was mainly adult volunteers then all the girls came all day Saturday, 9-4. I couldn’t believe their energy! Jumping up and down next to the street, waving signs, shouting at the traffic. The most popular signs were “Honk for a Cure.” If honks were dollar bills, we would have raised thousands and thousands. The girls are already planning next year’s fundraiser. We also did a raffle, $5 for 6 tickets and the prizes were donated by locals. That was a success. Instead of traditional lemonade we used machines from The Margarita Man which made lemonade slushies.

Overall we raised $1,550…and counting."

LemonAid Children’s Festival,
June 2 - Malvern, PA

Hilton Gardens Inn, Las Colinas