By Kendall Fisher, executive producer at Grow Wire

In short:

  • Four-year-old Alex Scott started Alex’s Lemonade Stand in 2000, after she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma as a baby.

  • Alex opened her original lemonade stand to raise money for her doctors and childhood cancer research.

  • After Alex’s passing in 2004, her family founded Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to continue her fight, raising over $150 million to date.

September marks Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation continues to support the cause in a massive way—not only this month, but every day of the year.

Alexandra “Alex” Scott started Alex’s Lemonade Stand in 2000, after she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma—a form of childhood cancer—as a baby. After one of her rounds of treatments, she told her mother she wanted to raise money for her doctors in order to “help little kids, like they helped me.” She decided a lemonade stand was the way to do it, and later that year, she and her family opened Alex’s first lemonade stand. They raised $2,000, an experience that sparked an annual tradition.

Subsequent lemonade stands were even more successful, and by the time Alex was 8 years old, she set forth to raise $1 million for childhood cancer research. The news of her mission spread nationwide and resulted in appearances on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “The Today Show,” in magazines and newspapers and more. Individuals , organizations and companies across the globe began setting up their own lemonade stands to help Alex achieve her goal.

And she did.

Alex reached the $1 million mark in July 2004. She passed away 10 days later, on Aug. 1, 2004.

After seeing their daughter’s dedication and the nationwide support for childhood cancer research, Alex’s family decided to continue her fight. Her parents, Jay and Liz Scott, quit their jobs and founded Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) in 2005.

The organization has raised more than $150 million to date, and the story of the Scott family’s dedication to Alex’s mission will undoubtedly cause tears to flow.

Watch the full story of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation by launching the video above.

To donate to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and support Childhood Cancer Awareness month, visit alexslemonade.org.

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