Hi, my name is Anja Hollander; I work for CSM Bakery Products, a bakery supply company. As part of my job I often have the opportunity to work with large grocery stores, like Giant Eagle. For the second year in a row, Giant Eagle took part in a special fundraising promotion for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. All the bakeries under the Giant Eagle umbrella featured three lemon products that when purchased would raise funds and awareness for the cause. Among the yummy products – lemon cupcakes (a new item for Giant Eagle made especially for Alex’s Lemonade Stand), Lemon Meringue Pie & Lemon Soft Drop cookies.

In addition to the promotion, this year we had the pleasure of welcoming Liz Scott to our kick off in Columbus. Here is a short summary of my day with Liz!

7/14, 6:55pm - Liz Scott lands in Columbus, Ohio! We had dinner at Brio with various people from Giant Eagle. Liz shared the wonderful story of Alex, a child with wisdom far beyond her years and how she left her mark in this world, forever changing the future of other children now walking in her shoes. Hearing Alex’s story firsthand left us teary eyed at moments and in awe of her giving spirit; a special person too precious for earth.

7/15, 5:00am - We picked Liz up and headed to a local news station for a segment called Coffee Chat with Chuck Strickland, 10TV news anchor.

7/15, 8:00am – 12:00pm - After breakfast, we headed out to show Liz the hard work and effort our teams put into building lemonade stands inside the Giant Eagle Bakeries. All stores across Ohio, Pennsylvania & Maryland were sent instructions on how to construct a lemonade stand and point of sale materials, for instance Alex’s Lemonade Signs, Alex’s story and cancer awareness stickers to apply to each lemon item for sale in the display. They also featured cross promotion items such as Country Time Lemonade, Domino’s Sugar & Sunkist Lemons.



7/15, 1:30pm - After a delicious lunch at Spagio’s, Liz invited us to the OSU Medical Center to meet Rami Aqeilan, a researcher who is receiving funding from ALSF. We toured the research facilities and he gave us an update on his next steps to further pediatric cancer research. It was a very informative meeting and also very touching to hear his level of passion in finding a cure for pediatric cancer.



7/15, 4:00pm - We dropped Liz off at the airport and she was homeward bound.

Thank you Liz for visiting the Columbus Giant Eagle stores and all you and your foundation do to further cancer research. It was an honor to meet you and learn firsthand the importance of your foundation.