Students at Southwest Elementary Sell Lemonade to Fight Childhood Cancer

On Tuesday June 9, students in Exceptional Children (EC) classes at Southwest Elementary School and members of the school’s Student Council held the school’s fourth annual Alex’s Lemonade Stand to raise money to fight childhood cancer. The money raised went to the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). 

Superintendent Beverly Emory was there, and, in a thank-you note to her, Maria Vernon, a speech-language pathologist at the school, wrote:

“Thank you so much for coming to Southwest and being a part of our lemonade stand and your generous donation. You look great in yellow!  We sold 925 cups of lemonade and, so far, we have raised over $4,100 to support ALSF, surpassing our goal of $3,000. 

“Most importantly we saw how our school, community and friends came together to support four classes of EC children as they participated in the fourth annual Alex's Lemonade Stand…I love that our school and students had the opportunity to shine by helping others one cup at a time.”

Running the stand had the fringe benefit of giving students the opportunity to work on their academic and communication skills. While organizing the event, they sequenced the steps to make the lemonade, practiced their addition and subtraction skills with money, and learned how to use appropriate social skills while selling the lemonade.

Students sold the lemonade for 50 cents a cup. As part of the activities, members of the student council sold paper lemons for $1 to decorate the hallways of Southwest honoring and remembering those individuals who are fighting or have fought cancer. 

Twelve years ago, Alexandra “Alex” Scott challenged the nation to help her raise $1 million toward finding cures for all kids with cancer, one cup of lemonade at a time.

National Lemonade Days is a three day national event that grew out of Alex's front yard lemonade stand and is held every year during the same weekend in June. During National Lemonade Days, volunteers sponsor thousands of Alex's Lemonade Stands across the country. This year, more 10,000 volunteers organized 2,000 Alex’s Lemonade Stands across the country.

Photos are courtesy of Tracy Krell.