Lemonade stand sweet way to raise funds

EILEEN GODIN Times Leader Correspondent

WILKES-BARRE – What do Shrek, Herbie “The Love Bug,” pucker lemon faces and lots of smiles have in common? They were all part of Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fun Festival held Saturday at Schiel’s Family Market in Parsons.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand is a nationally known fundraiser to raise money to help fight childhood cancer. The fun festival has been held for three years by the Ss. Peter and Paul Youth Group of Plains Township and co-hosted by Schiel’s Family Market.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Fun Festival was held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the store’s parking lot. Gary Anker, store manager, said proudly this is the fourth year the store participated and helped raise, year-to-date, about $46,000 to fight childhood cancer.

“For the past three years, we have been one of the top 100 Alex’s Lemonade Stands in the nation,” Maryann Quinn, director of the Ss. Peter and Paul Youth Group, said. “We are shooting for number four again this year.”

To help reach this goal, Schiel’s Family Markets and Choice One Credit Union will be selling paper lemons for customers to write their name on. Raffle tickets can be purchased for $5, bottles of lemonade sold for $2, and the daring paid $5 to participate in a lemon eating contest.

“We choose to do this event every year because it is our kids helping kids,” Quinn said. “They love doing it.”

Quinn said the event teaches the youth group to be creative and through helping others, “They will feel good about themselves and grow to be a better person.”

This year, Quinn said they hope to take the youth group to the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia so the children can see who the money helps and where it goes.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand was started by Alexandra Scott in 2000. Alex was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a type of childhood cancer shortly before her first birthday.

Alex started her first lemonade stand at age 4 and raised $2,000 to help other children with cancer. In 2004, Alex died, but during her life she raised more than $1 million for childhood cancer. Quinn said last year, Alex’s parents, Liz and Jay Scott, came to the event, which was hosted by the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees in Moosic.

“We raised over $11,000 last year,” Quinn said.

Mid-event, Quinn said they had raised $6,080. With an hour and a half to go, Quinn was hopeful they might earn $8,000.

“We are competing against a lot of other activities going on today,” she said.