Today is Alex’s birthday, she would have turned 17-years-old. Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend her being a teenager. When she passed away at the age of 8, she was already mature well beyond her years so it kills me that I’m not able to see the young woman she would have evolved into over these past 9 years. I often wonder would she still enjoy designing fashions and be looking at design schools upon her impending graduation from high school, how she would be handling dating with three protective brothers (not to mention a very protective father!), and would she still dream of visiting France someday. But, most of all I wonder what she would think about the Foundation that she started and the inspiration that she has given to so many people young and old, across the country and even around the world. 

We recently celebrated Alex’s inspiration at our annual Lemon Ball gala last Saturday, January 12. I guess in a way it’s almost an unofficial birthday party for Alex. Although we celebrate the Foundation’s achievements and honor some incredible supporters, it’s basically a party to honor what Alex started in our front yard almost 13 years ago.

Although all of our past Lemon Ball’s have been amazing – this year was perhaps one of the best yet in my opinion. This year, we featured several of our childhood cancer heroes throughout the evening to help show our supporters the incredible difference they’re making in these kids’ lives with their support of ALSF. Although we often say that Alex is the face of the Foundation, she’s just one of them – it’s really each and every child who has ever been diagnosed with cancer. For anyone who attended The Lemon Ball I think they would agree that these heroes stole the show. Don’t get me wrong – our honorees were exceptional and incredibly profound, but having these kids on hand who have battled or are still battling this deadly disease helped bring everything full circle.

 There was 22-year-old Hope Bertelsen who has been fighting cancer for more than 10 years and presented the Alex Scott Crystal Cup award to Jeff Benjamin, Jeff Michaud and Marc Vetri of the Vetri Family of Restaurants and blew away my presentation to this amazing trio who started The Great Chefs Event. Also 9-year-old Tony Salerno who is in remission from neuroblastoma (the same kind of cancer Alex had) presented The Stand Host of the Year award to The Smith Family of Spring Lake, NJ proclaiming he was “New Jersey Strong” just like them. And of course, the hilarious Cole Fitzgerald who was in his glory up on stage presenting Paige and Mark Walsh of Kansas City with the Volunteers of the Year award. Not to mention all of the heroes who helped make the silent auction even more fun and inspiring by "hosting" different tables of items. If you want to get an idea for what I'm referring to, check out our Facebook page for a bunch of great photos from the event and our website  to see a video clip of Tony and Cole pre-empting the Fund a Cure portion of the evening where our generous guests raised more than $100,000 in a matter of minutes for a neuroblastoma research grant!

Thanks to everyone’s support, we raised more than $825,000 at The Lemon Ball, which will do an unbelievable amount of good in our fight against childhood cancer. I’m pretty sure this would top any birthday present that we could ever give to Alex, so from the bottom of my heart – thank you. And Alex – Happy Birthday, today and every day we celebrate you. - Love, Mom