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Photo by Jim Graham
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Alexandra Scott would be 20 this year. And while she didn’t live long enough to become a young woman, her name is now synonymous with the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
Hope, empowerment, community, courage—these are all things that her parents, Jay and Liz Scott, imbued into their organization when they founded it in 2005. Since then, Alex’s Lemonade Stand has raised more than $120 million to fund research into cures for childhood cancers—and to help the families suffering because of them. While corporate sponsors and galas like the Lemon Ball bring in significant funds, the organization retains its original base of children raising money for other children. “When I was a kid, we did UNICEF at Halloween, and that was it,” says Jay. “Now, giving back is a lesson that many people are teaching their kids.”
For the Scotts, it’s a way to fight for other kids. “We’re still parents, and we feel that urgency to find a cure,” Liz says. “There’s an absolute desperation to it—and I mean desperation. We know the frustration in thinking that there may be a cure but it may not come in time.”
