Alex's Story

In 2000, a 4 year old cancer patient named Alexandra Scott opened a lemonade
stand in her front yard with the goal of raising money to find a cure for
all kids with cancer. As word of Alex's fundraising spread, donations poured
in from around the world. Alex passed away in August of 2004, at the age of
8 but her legacy lives on through Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation for
Childhood Cancer. To date, in eight years volunteers have helped Alex and
her legacy to raise over $21 million for research!

Links are as follows:

www.firstgiving.com/netiarichards (this was the original site including info
on the head-shaving auction and the background info).

www.firstgiving.com/netiarichards1 (this is the new site with this years
information on our fundraising).

www.alexslemonade.org (this is the organizations web site which includes
background information on Alex, the cause, the gift shop, how people can
help and/or get involved, where the funds go, etc.)

Background info on what we have been doing!

My family and I have been involved with ALSF since 2004 after an experience
we had when our first child, Chloe was born. She experienced many
difficulties and was hospitalized for some time. The story of how a girl,
just four years old who had the ability to think of so many others after
what she was going through caught my attention. If she could have a heart
like this and attempt to help so many others during her hardship, why can't
others who are completely healthy do the same?

We started off very small but still organized. We got local businesses to
donate the lemonade and cookies to start with. I decided to do it on
Heritage Days since there were so many people around. That was the best bet
for making money and raising awareness. Our first year we set up outside of
Amoco and made about $100, people didn't really know what it was about, but
were listening.

The second year we set up on main street before the parade right by the
Corner Bar, since it was on the way to the Museum, where everyone gathered.
That was a disappointing day with a total of $10 in sales and none of it was
even lemonade; they were ALSF bracelets! At this point we had more
merchandise, bracelets, books about Alex, shirts, etc. Still people weren't
interested.

The third year I started planning early and decided to do something so
outrageous that would surely get people's attention. I would vow to get my
head shaved completely by the highest bidder in an auction-type setting. The
goal was $1000 and was also the minimum that I would do it for. People
thought it was crazy and didn't think I would go through with it. We
advertised and promoted for months prior and on Heritage Days we geared up
and made a big lemonade float with a mobile lemonade stand; big, bright and
yellow! We passed out tattoos and stickers and lemonade samples to people in
the crowd and let them know of the auction afterwards.

A friend of mine Tanya Berg also vowed to shave her head for this cause too.
People from all over gathered to see what would happen with this; some for
interest in what was happening, some because they thought it was so worthy,
others to see how funny we would look with no hair. Surprisingly a little
girl from the crowd also raised money and would shave her head. The three of
us got our heads shaved that day and raised over $3500, which tripled our
goal!

We continued the day with a Dunk Tank, face painting and Locks for Love hair
donations. We had three girls, including my daughter Chloe to do this. This
was a huge success and we had finally made a stand and was able to get out
the word about Alex and her dream.

The fourth year was going to be hard to beat after the last success. We
wanted to do a Go For Bald campaign again, but there were no brave souls!
We decided to do a raffle instead with many different prized from typical
raffles including a sky dive from Fargo and many a helicopter ride from
Alexandria, MN among many other local donations. We again had a float, did
the raffle and dunk tank, locks for love donations, etc. We only made about
$1400, but was still amazing that we again had made that much of a
difference.

We are constantly planning for the years to come, so if anyone has any ideas
or is brave enough to relive our Go For Bald campaign please come forward!
You never know when cancer may strike you, your family or someone you know,
whether it be pediatric or adult hood cancer, we can try to prevent it
together!

I have lots of merchandise to sell all year long including pens, pencils,
cups, mugs, shirts of all kinds, bandanas, two different books as well. For
more information visit my personal page or contact me via email at
netiajrichards@hotmail.com or by phone 701-538-4678!

Here are some facts about childhood cancer too...

Did you know?

-One in every 330 Americans develops cancer before the age of twenty.

-On the average, 36 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer
everyday in the United States.

-On the average, one in every four elementary schools has a child with
cancer. The average high school has two students who are current or former
cancer patients.

-Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in children under the age
of 15 in the United States.

-Childhood cancers affect more potential patient-years of life than any
other cancer except breast and lung cancer.

-The causes of most childhood cancers are unknown. At present, childhood
cancer cannot be prevented.

-Childhood cancer occurs regularly, randomly and spares no ethnic group,
socioeconomic class, or geographic region. In the United States, the
incidence of cancer among adolescents and young adults is increasing at a
greater rate than any other age group, except those over 65 years.

-Despite these facts, childhood cancer research is vastly and consistently
under funded.

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NeTia and her family are volunteering at the original Alex's Lemonade Stand
in Wynnewood, PA next June during National Lemonade Days which marks the
9th year that that this stand has been held, which was originally started by
Alex. Since we will not be in Lidgerwood during National Lemonade Days we
are looking for someone to take over the stand. It is the first weekend of
June, so if anyone is interested please let me know...we have all the
materials and even the lemonade stand, we just need someone to administer it
while we are volunteering at the original event in PA! We still plan on
having our Annual Lemon Event during Heritage Days though!