7-year-old raises $80,000 for cancer
 

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/co...2616300c8.html
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7-year-old raises $80,000 for cancer


By Shelley Emling, Palm Beach Post-Cox News
Wednesday, June 11, 2003



On Wednesday, the Philadelphia Foundation will hand out its "philanthropist of the year" award to a feisty 7-year-old who has squeezed more benevolence into her short life than most adults 10 times her age.

Alexandra Scott has raised more than $80,000 for cancer research by selling cups of lemonade from a stand in her front yard in Wynnewood, Pa.

Weakened by neuroblastoma, a potentially deadly form of cancer that affects mostly babies and small children, Alexandra is able to put up her stand only a few times a year. But when she does, it pays off.

Last Saturday she raked in $14,000, despite nonstop rain that forced her to pitch a tent. One $500 check came from the Philadelphia 76ers pro basketball team.

"When life gives you lemons you should make lemonade, and that's exactly what this little girl has done," said Phil Arkow of the Philadelphia Foundation, an 85-year-old philanthropic organization.

It was just two days before her first birthday that doctors in Connecticut discovered a growth on Alex's spinal column that turned out to be neuroblastoma, which is fatal in about 40 percent of cases.

The doctors operated on Alex's first birthday, and successfully removed 99 percent of the tumor.

But the stubborn growth came back, and even after another four surgeries it wouldn't go away.

Her parents, Jay and Liz Scott, were given the name of a doctor in Philadelphia who started Alex on an experimental radioactive iodine treatment.

Her condition stabilized, and she was able to attend public school and design clothes for her dolls, one of her favorite hobbies.

Liz Scott said she still can't fathom the success of the lemonade stand, which was strictly her daughter's idea.

"She had just turned 4 and was in the hospital getting a stem cell transplant," she said. "One day she announced she wanted to have a lemonade stand.... Then she said she wanted to give the money to the hospital."

News of the stand spread by word of mouth, and she raised $2,000 on her first Saturday.

Last August, Alex and her mother created Alex's Lemonade Stand Fund with the help of the Philadelphia Foundation.

The money she raises goes to both the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia and the Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where she underwent treatments.
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wow, anything else?

Thats great stuff right there. I am trying to do the same for my aunt who got breast cancer and so far raised several hundred from an online raffle for a video game. Its still going if anyone wants to check it out. www.wayngo.com/raffle.htm

She had a fund raiser several weeks ago and raised nearly 25,000. Makes my few hundred look small but every little bit helps.

Any help would be appreciated.

Richard

some people should be so inspired...

It's wonderful to see such generosity. Very heartening.

It's wonderful to see such generosity. Very heartening. Nice to know that people are out there taking care of each other. I strive for that kind of charitable spirit.

Some friends of mine have a family savings account. They put something like $10-20 in it every paycheck, and then at the end of the year they sit down as a family and decide how to distribute it. Maybe I'll start that practice so I can have a fund to just dip into and contribute to things like this, spur of the moment.

Wow. That was a really good story.

It's nice to read about things like that.

thanks for putting that up

Wow, she's only 7 and she's already made more than I have in my entire life. This little girl is going to go far in life, good on her :)

What an inspiration for Life.

I do hope she at least sent the Philly 76ers some lemonade packets.

O.K....no matter what crappy thing happens to me the rest of this day...I'm gonna recall this story. Every day we are bombarded with the crappiest that humankind has to offer. <b>Here</b> is a story that can restore a little lost faith in mankind. Perhaps we, as adults, have a lot to learn from a little 7 year old girl. I know that <b>I</b> do. This kid rocks!!

well done, inspiring story.

Glad someone posted this. I had to do a report last year on who I thought should be Person of the Year. Guess who I chose? Alexandra Scott. When my teacher read my report and went to the links I gave she started crying. I think Alexandra is a great example of how a person can do what they want no matter how hard the circumstances. She's been an inspiration to me ever since I first heard of her. Great post!!

Take it for what its worth -- inspiring!

This is good stuff. Snapple has nothing on this kid.

I wonder if she's buying her own supplies... :D

Yes very good on Alexandra Scott. Ispiring. In the last few hours, I've seen a docco on the palestinien citizens living in the Gaza Strip. I read about a family being torn apart of child porn... a single picture of the mother breastfeeding her child. I've seen images of Teen Pagents... where girls, some as young as 14, are visible to all in semi see through tops via the internet. Anglican church arguing over wheather Gay's have rights...

And there is Alexandra Scott. Good to see that for all the f**ked up world we live in, there is still at least some hope. In the words of John Butler Trio, "Seems strange to me man strange to me. Don't it seem strange to you?"

This story made me smile. That's getting to be harder and harder to do these days. I hope that when I have kids, they will be as kind and caring as she is. Everyone in the country can learn something from her.