September 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Liz Scott's 4 year-old daughter Alex was fighting neuroblastoma cancer and yet Alex decided to host a lemonade stand to raise money for childhood cancer research. From her first stand that raised $2,000 to raising $1 million by the time she died at age 8, Alex inspired a movement that has raised $350 million, with a literal Army of Normal Folks hosting lemonade stands for Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Everybody's built courtney with an army in normal folks, and
if you can get through the tears. We continue now
with part two of our conversation with Liz Scott. Right
after these brief messages from our general sponsors. So in
(00:33):
the period of time between four and a half and
her passing, you had a conversation with her where she
asked you where the money was going, and I think
you told her what We're sending it to your doctors,
and she was not pleased.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
She was not pleased, so she questioned what we were
doing with the money, as it was kind of coming
in all year round at this point, and I said,
you know what we're doing. We're giving it to your hospital,
which at the time was a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
To your doctor to and she said, well, what is
he doing with it?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And I said, well, he's using it to study neuroblastoma, which,
as we've mentioned, was her cancer. And she started shaking
her head, and I said, what's the matter. She said,
that is so selfish, and even then I'm embarrassed to
say it now because I've seen what's come from her vision.
I was about to respond and say I don't care
because in my mind, what I wanted was a cure
(01:26):
for my daughter more than anything in the entire world,
and the only way to do that was by funding
research into her cancer. But before I could get the
words out, she said, all kids want their tumors to
go away, which is what she called her cancer. All
kids want their tumors to away, something along the lines
of we should be giving money to all the hospitals
for all the kids. And once again I just got
(01:47):
that feeling. I wanted to cry because she was six
when she said that, and I was, you know, thirty something,
and I felt like such a small person for thinking
for a moment that this was about her and curing
her and about what I wanted, when it was really
about something so much bigger.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have a serious regret that I was not around
to meet your daughter, because that is a level of
maturity that I know lengthy of people in their fifties
and sixties don't have.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I feel like when I tell these stories, I feel
like I'm portraying myself as some.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Sort of you know, terrible mom.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I guess, I would say, but you have to understand
I was a normal mom right dealing with an incredibly
hard situation and wanted nothing more than to protect my
daughter from any additional harm. And that included not making
her life about reaching a million dollar goal when she
had so little left to give, And I just wanted
her to think about herself.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
But she wasn't having it. She really wasn't.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I'm so grateful to her for showing me that
you can create a purpose out of something that's so
incredibly hard.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So we always talk about on an army in normal
folks that when passion and ability intersected opportunity, that's when
amazing things in the world happen. Passion and ability intersected opportunity.
And this is that this is she was passionate about tumors.
(03:29):
We'll call them what she called them. She had the
ability make a lemonade stand, and she saw an opportunity
and filled it. And if a person from four and
a half to eight and a half and that short
amount of time walking the face of our planet, if
that normal kid can use her passion and her ability
(03:53):
at opportunity to raise a million dollars, what can fully
developed grown human beings do if they just have the
temerity and courage to engage their passion where they see need.
She is an inspiration not only for the lemonade stand,
(04:15):
but her story is what we are begging people to
think about when they look in the mirror in the morning.
What can we do? And if an eight year old
can raise a million dollars, we need to be sitting
here right now asking ourselves what am I good at?
What am I passionate about? And where's their need? What
can I do? And if we had millions of Alexes
(04:36):
walking the face of the planet, can you imagine how
different our society and our culture would be today.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
That's exactly our thought after she died and we decided
to continue it, is if she could do this, we
can't say it's too hard to continue it without her.
We can't say it will be hard. There's a million
reasons it's not going to work. It's eliminates and right,
how is it going to continue without her? But all
of those things you said, if she could do it,
if she had the courage to do it, we certainly
(05:07):
needed the courage to change things for other families.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You know, I was reading the story, and from here
the story jumps to what you're doing now and everything else.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I think it's.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
A mission to jump immediately because two parents and siblings
had to bury their daughter and their sister, and as
a family, you guys had to cope and then move on.
I want to give you just a brief moment to
(05:45):
remind us all that you're human beings, and this is
a family, and behind this organization is a love of
a daughter and a sister, and that it didn't just
Alex passed and we started a foundation.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Absolutely not I mean that.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Because you're a normal person doing a normal crap.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes, I mean it was. It's hard. It's still hard.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's still hard to really really think about Alex and
everything our family has lost, everything, her three brothers have lost,
not having a sister.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's still hard. There are days better or harder than others.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I think her gift she gave us was the incredible
lessons we learned from her, and I think every parent
who's lost a child takes those lessons with them and
tries to live up to them as.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
They move forward. But it's been incredibly hard.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So I appreciate you acknowledging that for all of us
in our own way grieving her while also celebrating her life.
Because there was so much to celebrate, and now twenty
one years later, there's even more to celebrate because of
the progress and the kids who are benefiting from her life.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
But it's still very much unbalanced.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
There's never a balance, right, It's more of like one
day you think, wow, this is great, but what did
this do for Alex? She's not here to enjoy it,
And then another minute you think this is amazing and
everyone would want their life to have this legacy, including Alex.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So I just want as people look at you and
hear you and see the foundation of what it does,
and celebrate you for carrying on this legacy. I just
want people to remember, before all of that, you're still
Alex's mom.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So, Albert Pike, a eighteenth century freemason, said, what we
do for ourselves in this life does with us what
we do for another last forever remains immortal when talking
about legacy, So you guys start, I think it's called
(08:09):
Alex's Lemonade stand foundation if we're going to say it
exactly right, which obviously is her legacy. So take us
through the foundation forming.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
And today.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Wow, So never could have imagined that we would be
sitting here now saying we've raised over three hundred fifty
million dollars.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And when I say we say that again, three hundred
fifty million people in the back.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
But when I say we, I never want that to
come across as it as if it's Jay and myself,
because there have literally been millions of people through lemonade
stands that happen.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
We have more lemonade in an.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Army, an army, there's been an army of normal folks, yes,
helping a continue this from lemonade stands like Firebirds does,
asking people to give kids having lemonade stands, donors, giving
our events. It literally has taken what Alex started as
a movement and grown it. She kind of gave us
(09:15):
that spark, and we're just so lucky we've been able
to continue it to the point now where we have
had a tremendous impact on the landscape of pediatric cancer.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know, necessdinally Memphians, you've given almost ten million dollars
to our own s's.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Actually now eleven, yes, eleven million. Yes. So we fund.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Research all over the United States, all over North America.
We don't we're the largest independent funder outside the federal government,
meaning we don't give to one hospital or one academic center.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
We give all over the country.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
We have a competitive print review process, and we fund
everything from early science to clinical trials for all kinds
of childhood cancer, just as Alex wanted at all hospitals,
ultimately looking to put ourselves out of business and finish
what Alex started and find better cures for kids with kimerling.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I've read that recently, either this past June or.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
June of twenty four a recent June, you had like
fourteen hundred lemonade stands across the country and one day
that people volunteered set up and you raised like one
point five million dollars on that day.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So June is the month that Alex had her stand,
and that's our lemonade days. So this year was our
biggest ever. We actually had thirty five hundred this year,
but they were spread throughout the month and we'll raise
close to two million with just those lemonade stands just
in June alone.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
And that's just.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
This guy over here deciding he's going to put a
lemonade stand in and everything he raises, he sends the foundation.
That's right, yep, Okay, well that's great. But thirty five
hundred is a relatively low number. We need to get
up to ten thousand. People haven't and raised five million.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That is so interesting you say that because we had
a meeting to talk about lemonade days for next year.
And my husband has to get a lot of credit
for being the just like Alex, the always pushing wait, wait, wait,
more and more and more. And so we did three
five hundred and I said, I think the goal could
be five thousand next year, and Jay said five thousand.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I think it should be ten thousand.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Where I didn't know that I picked that number.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I half, but if you think about the numbers of
people in the United States, right, thirty five hundred is
a relatively no number. We should have five hundred and Memphis.
I mean if you multiplied that times the fifty largest
municipalities in the country and added in I don't even
think ten thousands about if you really think about it,
(11:49):
I mean, how hard is it you set up elimonade
saying you picked the Jai Everybody's for charity. You get
everybody in your neighborhood to come by, and you send
the check to the thing. I don't know why that
doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It works.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It works incredibly well, and not only that, I got
to work harder. We're doing all we care, Yeahue, but
there is always more to be done. We constantly have
to think about how do we bring new people into the.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Army to help us solve this problem for families.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
A lot of the people who participate are people with
a personal connection to childhood cancer. We need everybody, even
if you don't have a child with cancer or a
niece or nephew, to recognize that this is a cause
that needs your help, needs your support. And it's really
easy to do and it's fun. Kids love doing it.
They get to do something that they actually can actively
(12:41):
participate in and lead that's contributing to.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Help sororities, fraternities, college campuses. My mind is running wild
about people that should be doing this right now. And
now I'm starting to get a little angry that there's
only thirty five hundred.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
If I think about it completely, we.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Did have at least one in every state this year.
Very cool and yeah, actually Hawai only had one. Alaska
there was five, so that was the most we've ever
had in the.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Last Elimonade's got to be a tough sale in Alaska. Well,
I guess in June it gets warmer.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, I think right, there's not as many people there,
So I don't know if setting up like in your
yard is really going to be super profitable.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You might have to think about the location.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Well, it depends on how many kids you have knocking
on doors that day.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Right, Yeah, we'll be right back. So this thing is
(13:40):
morphed and I'm looking for notes. So now you've got
two things and I'll let you just take it as
you want to. One is, you've got the one cup
at a time club, you can host a lemonade stand.
You got the million mile I want you to share
all of that. But have you've been able to connect
(14:05):
with families and children that you know have been directly
impacted by Alex's founding and you guys shepherding this stream
of hers, Yes, tell us about one cuple of time
they now, and tell us about the payoff that as
(14:26):
a mom you at least get to see other families
positively impacted by your daughter's journey.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, so I'll do the self first, right, So you
can have a lemonade sand, you can join our monthly giving.
It's a great way, you know. Five dollars a month,
ten dollars a month. You're part of the club one
Cup at a time club, and we're trying to grow
that to ten thousand as well. We're in the low
thousands now. It's a monthly giving, a recurring giving. So
you go to our website and you say, yes, I
(14:54):
want to give five dollars a month every month or
ten or some people give a hundred. Whatever you want
to give per month. It comes out we automatically. We
charge your card automatically. But it's more than that. You
get monthly contact from us, sharing progress and notes. But
really just know that over time, just like Alex showed us,
like that incremental one cup at a time, small donations
(15:16):
can add up to a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Just donate a one time donation. We take it all.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
But we have a big event in September, which is
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and that's top of mine. Now,
you can have a lemonade stand any time of year.
I just want to say, but in September we all
get together. Last year we had twenty five thousand people
we're trying to grow it this year who create a
page a team on our website and they set a
goal for how many miles they want to walk, run, bike,
you can count your steps, whatever we need to do
(15:44):
to get to a million miles all together for kids
with cancer. And that event has become our largest sort
of community event. It's virtual, you just do it wherever
you are and we will hopefully raise well over two
million dollars through that event this year, hopefully closer to three.
So all of these things we do, we have events
in different a few different cities. But all of that
(16:06):
is not because we love running around like lunatics, planning
events and trying to get people to do lemonades.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
So kind of Memphis, talking to fat redheaded guys all that.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
But because we now know that we are making progress,
and that is really because of the families who we
have been so fortunate have taken the time because they
were told by their doctor about Alex's and how alex
Is lemonade and Alex's life made their treatment possible to
come to us and say thank you, and I want
(16:36):
to be a part of what you're doing. We also
have some family support programs, so we've met many families
through that. So if you know of a family who's
who is fighting childhood cancer, or has even we have
somebody on staff who can help them with whatever resources they.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Need, including travel and something.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Including travel if you need to travel to another hospital,
as we did for an innovative or new therapy. We
have a sibling support program. We have a lot of
educational materials for families. But really, I mean, there's so
many stories. I would say one of my favorite is
a young boy named Philip who was not local to Philadelphia,
(17:18):
but he had the same cancer as Alex and just
like our family, nothing had worked, and they were told
that he would not survive, but.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
He was I believe.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Oh let me think he was maybe five four or
five years old at this point.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So, I mean, you guys know this story, yes, I
mean this is personal to you.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Probably we know the story well and we know what
it's like to then find out there is a clinical
trial that might help your child, feeling that hope, but
knowing that you know it was maybe unlikely or you
could be crushed again because it might not work. So
they ended up participating in this trial that we we
(18:02):
had funded at various parts of in its whole lifetime
of discovery to trial, and we had heard about this
child from the researcher, and she kept saying, I want
you to meet this family. I really think you need
to meet this family. And he was cured. He was cured,
and this was not cured. It was not a toxic treatment,
(18:25):
it was a pill. His hair grew back. So the
parents are sitting there saying, this can't be working right,
it's too easy, Like were they giving him a placebo
or something? And his cancer melted away. And so we
had heard of him. But one day it happened to
be Alex's birthday a couple of years ago. I'm not
(18:46):
usually in the office a lot of times. I just
take the day to do whatever I feel like doing.
But I had to be in the office for something
that day and this family stops by. I didn't know
who they were, and she said, are you Liz And
I said yes, and she just started crying and she
hugged me, and you know, she said, that's Philip, and
(19:07):
I still wasn't connecting and she said, that's Philip, my son.
And he was running all around the office. And I
think he was probably ten at the time. He's like
twelve or thirteen now. And she said, Philip, the little
boy who Alex saved, and of course I started crying,
(19:28):
and they stayed for a while and we talked to
him and we've become friends since. But that's just one family.
But as I sat there with them on her birthday,
I thought, how incredible, how incredible on this day when
you need something right to show you that Alex is
still alive in so many ways, to have this child
(19:51):
there just running around care free, feeling great, several years
cancer free, literally because of what she created her life,
and it was such a gift to me. But that's
happened so many times over, just not necessarily on her birthday,
and it never gets old. As they say, I'm so
grateful to those families for being willing to share and
(20:14):
to allow me to be a part of their experience
and to think that Alex was a part of their child.
We had one family that tells us every year on
their daughter's birthday, they light a candle for Alex because
they know without Alex their daughter would not be celebrating
her birthday.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Their daughter's birthday, they.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Light a candle and she's like seventeen now she had this.
She was in the same boat as a toddler. They
were considered and curable, so we know there's progress, but sadly,
there's many times where kids don't make it, and that's
it takes us right back.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
That's so so hard when you know a family.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But does that create even more determination to do more? Absolutely,
it's not defeating.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
It's more fueling.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's fueling because it makes us realize that as much
as we should and do celebrate the successes, there's not
enough of them. We have many, many, many more successes
to come, and the only way we're going to do
that is to just keep pushing and selling lemonade.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And they need to do yep.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I know, Philip and the birthday cake people and millions
of others are really glad that Alex was so steadfast
and perturbing that you finally gave in on that June day,
you know, born from a little girl who just wanted
(21:45):
to have a lemonade stand and give money away to
this it's just, you know, I think it's why it's
twenty years old and still going strong. I think it's
why the national media has loved this story forever. Liz,
my goodness, what a legacy your daughter has left. We
(22:06):
have a few minutes, okay, and I know, for everybody listening,
we're gonna, I think they're gonna we're gonna have a
lemonade stand outside of Firebirds here in a little bit,
and you're gonna hang around, aren't you.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, good. But for those of you who took the
time to join us today, you have a chance now
from the horse's mouth, if you have any questions about Alex,
Alex's lemon and the aid stand, the foundation, I ain't
get involved. Anybody wants to ask any questions, here she is.
(22:39):
And if you don't, and you don't feel weird, you
don't have to, and we can close it anybody. Maybe
I'll start off with one as people think, if is
there a story of no bad days Frankie?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
If you remember that.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yes, so I just mentioned that.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
It's it's always it's really hard when you we meet
a lot of families and we get attached to them
in their stories, even if we've actually never met them.
But in Frankie's case, we had met his family several times.
We have an army to keep using your word of ambassadors.
So these are families across the country who participate with
us and share their story. And Frankie's family was one
(23:15):
of those families, and we met him when he was
kind of first through his treatment for brain tumors, and
his mom.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Told the story about Frankie.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
In kindergarten, starting kindergarten and he had just spent the
summer fighting a brain tumor. And the kindergarten teacher talked,
was kind of having their circle time talking about the
I hope I'm getting the story right paraphrasing, talking about
maybe like what the class would be like, and she
talked about bad days and we could have good days,
and we have bad days, and you know, has anybody
(23:44):
ever had a bad day?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And every hand went.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Up except Frankie. And she said, Frankie, you've never had
a bad day.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
And he said no. She said you've never.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Had a bad day and he said, no, no bad days,
And that became Frankie would go on to to continue
to fight his brain cancer. Ultimately was considered in remission
or stable, but the side effects from the horrendous treatment
that we have to give kids for brain tumors ultimately
ended up taking his life. So Frankie passed away shortly after.
(24:15):
He spoke at one of our lemon balls, but that
became his family's rallying cry no bad Days, and I
think for me.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Very much like some of the things Alex said in
her life.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It really shows you how these kids are able to
deal with what they deal with and.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Just have this incredible spirit and energy.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And that's what we're fighting for, because we want no
bad days for all of those kids, right and we
want kids like Frankie to have the chance to just
do amazing things in their lives with their attitude and
their inspiration for so many people, so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Anybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Okay, well, I'm so honored you came to join us
and tell Alex's story in the Foundation story and continue
to inspire people get involved. And I hope everybody out
there listening to this right now when this podcast goes live,
thirty five hundred lemonade stands in June is not enough.
(25:25):
I get emails all the time from listeners that are
I'm so inspired. I'm looking for something to do to
get involved. This doesn't have to be something you get
involved in a due month after month.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
You can literally do a one day event. That's right, yep,
one day of ent a year.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Let's be part of the group that helps helps Liz
and her crew take this thing to ten thousand people
in June. And all you got to do is go
to your website right.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yes, it's free to sign up, and there's no you
don't have to raise a certain amount of money.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
We make it very easy. You get your own little page.
We send you a kit of materials to get you started.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
How hard is that?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
What's website Alexleimonade dot org or just google Alex's Lemonade
Stand find us.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
He's enough, f Liz, thanks for coming, Thanks for hanging
around and meeting the folks and selling little lemonade outside.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
And it is by my distinct pleasure and honor to
meet you.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Thanks for being here, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And thank you for joining us this week. If Liz
Scott has not inspired you, you have a problem. But
if she has inspired you in general or better yet,
to take action by hosting a lemonade stand that benefits
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which is easy to do, it's
(26:51):
a one day thing. Or joining their donor club called
One Cup at a Time, which is really easy to
do because they just charge your credit card five bucks
a month, like you can't miss that, or participating in
the million mile, which is a little harder to do.
If you're fat like me, or something else entirely, please
let me know I'd love to hear about it. You
(27:12):
can write me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot
us and I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode,
please share it with friends and on social Subscribe to
the podcast, rate it, review it, Join the Army at
normal folks dot us consider becoming a premium member there,
Good grief, help us grow at Army and Normal Folks.
(27:34):
I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, let's do what we
can
Everybody's built courtney with an army in normal folks, and
if you can get through the tears. We continue now
with part two of our conversation with Liz Scott. Right
after these brief messages from our general sponsors. So in
(00:33):
the period of time between four and a half and
her passing, you had a conversation with her where she
asked you where the money was going, and I think
you told her what We're sending it to your doctors,
and she was not pleased.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
She was not pleased, so she questioned what we were
doing with the money, as it was kind of coming
in all year round at this point, and I said,
you know what we're doing. We're giving it to your hospital,
which at the time was a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
To your doctor to and she said, well, what is
he doing with it?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
And I said, well, he's using it to study neuroblastoma, which,
as we've mentioned, was her cancer. And she started shaking
her head, and I said, what's the matter. She said,
that is so selfish, and even then I'm embarrassed to
say it now because I've seen what's come from her vision.
I was about to respond and say I don't care
because in my mind, what I wanted was a cure
(01:26):
for my daughter more than anything in the entire world,
and the only way to do that was by funding
research into her cancer. But before I could get the
words out, she said, all kids want their tumors to
go away, which is what she called her cancer. All
kids want their tumors to away, something along the lines
of we should be giving money to all the hospitals
for all the kids. And once again I just got
(01:47):
that feeling. I wanted to cry because she was six
when she said that, and I was, you know, thirty something,
and I felt like such a small person for thinking
for a moment that this was about her and curing
her and about what I wanted, when it was really
about something so much bigger.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
Man.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I have a serious regret that I was not around
to meet your daughter, because that is a level of
maturity that I know lengthy of people in their fifties
and sixties don't have.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I agree.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
I feel like when I tell these stories, I feel
like I'm portraying myself as some.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Sort of you know, terrible mom.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
I guess, I would say, but you have to understand
I was a normal mom right dealing with an incredibly
hard situation and wanted nothing more than to protect my
daughter from any additional harm. And that included not making
her life about reaching a million dollar goal when she
had so little left to give, And I just wanted
her to think about herself.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
But she wasn't having it. She really wasn't.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And I'm so grateful to her for showing me that
you can create a purpose out of something that's so
incredibly hard.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So we always talk about on an army in normal
folks that when passion and ability intersected opportunity, that's when
amazing things in the world happen. Passion and ability intersected opportunity.
And this is that this is she was passionate about tumors.
(03:29):
We'll call them what she called them. She had the
ability make a lemonade stand, and she saw an opportunity
and filled it. And if a person from four and
a half to eight and a half and that short
amount of time walking the face of our planet, if
that normal kid can use her passion and her ability
(03:53):
at opportunity to raise a million dollars, what can fully
developed grown human beings do if they just have the
temerity and courage to engage their passion where they see need.
She is an inspiration not only for the lemonade stand,
(04:15):
but her story is what we are begging people to
think about when they look in the mirror in the morning.
What can we do? And if an eight year old
can raise a million dollars, we need to be sitting
here right now asking ourselves what am I good at?
What am I passionate about? And where's their need? What
can I do? And if we had millions of Alexes
(04:36):
walking the face of the planet, can you imagine how
different our society and our culture would be today.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
That's exactly our thought after she died and we decided
to continue it, is if she could do this, we
can't say it's too hard to continue it without her.
We can't say it will be hard. There's a million
reasons it's not going to work. It's eliminates and right,
how is it going to continue without her? But all
of those things you said, if she could do it,
if she had the courage to do it, we certainly
(05:07):
needed the courage to change things for other families.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
You know, I was reading the story, and from here
the story jumps to what you're doing now and everything else.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
I think it's.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
A mission to jump immediately because two parents and siblings
had to bury their daughter and their sister, and as
a family, you guys had to cope and then move on.
I want to give you just a brief moment to
(05:45):
remind us all that you're human beings, and this is
a family, and behind this organization is a love of
a daughter and a sister, and that it didn't just
Alex passed and we started a foundation.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Absolutely not I mean that.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Because you're a normal person doing a normal crap.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes, I mean it was. It's hard. It's still hard.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
It's still hard to really really think about Alex and
everything our family has lost, everything, her three brothers have lost,
not having a sister.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
It's still hard. There are days better or harder than others.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I think her gift she gave us was the incredible
lessons we learned from her, and I think every parent
who's lost a child takes those lessons with them and
tries to live up to them as.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
They move forward. But it's been incredibly hard.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So I appreciate you acknowledging that for all of us
in our own way grieving her while also celebrating her life.
Because there was so much to celebrate, and now twenty
one years later, there's even more to celebrate because of
the progress and the kids who are benefiting from her life.
Speaker 3 (07:00):
But it's still very much unbalanced.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
There's never a balance, right, It's more of like one
day you think, wow, this is great, but what did
this do for Alex? She's not here to enjoy it,
And then another minute you think this is amazing and
everyone would want their life to have this legacy, including Alex.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
So I just want as people look at you and
hear you and see the foundation of what it does,
and celebrate you for carrying on this legacy. I just
want people to remember, before all of that, you're still
Alex's mom.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
So, Albert Pike, a eighteenth century freemason, said, what we
do for ourselves in this life does with us what
we do for another last forever remains immortal when talking
about legacy, So you guys start, I think it's called
(08:09):
Alex's Lemonade stand foundation if we're going to say it
exactly right, which obviously is her legacy. So take us
through the foundation forming.
Speaker 4 (08:25):
And today.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Wow, So never could have imagined that we would be
sitting here now saying we've raised over three hundred fifty
million dollars.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
And when I say we say that again, three hundred
fifty million people in the back.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
But when I say we, I never want that to
come across as it as if it's Jay and myself,
because there have literally been millions of people through lemonade
stands that happen.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
We have more lemonade in an.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Army, an army, there's been an army of normal folks, yes,
helping a continue this from lemonade stands like Firebirds does,
asking people to give kids having lemonade stands, donors, giving
our events. It literally has taken what Alex started as
a movement and grown it. She kind of gave us
(09:15):
that spark, and we're just so lucky we've been able
to continue it to the point now where we have
had a tremendous impact on the landscape of pediatric cancer.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
You know, necessdinally Memphians, you've given almost ten million dollars
to our own s's.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Actually now eleven, yes, eleven million. Yes. So we fund.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Research all over the United States, all over North America.
We don't we're the largest independent funder outside the federal government,
meaning we don't give to one hospital or one academic center.
Speaker 3 (09:53):
We give all over the country.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
We have a competitive print review process, and we fund
everything from early science to clinical trials for all kinds
of childhood cancer, just as Alex wanted at all hospitals,
ultimately looking to put ourselves out of business and finish
what Alex started and find better cures for kids with kimerling.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
I've read that recently, either this past June or.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
June of twenty four a recent June, you had like
fourteen hundred lemonade stands across the country and one day
that people volunteered set up and you raised like one
point five million dollars on that day.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Is that right?
Speaker 3 (10:32):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
So June is the month that Alex had her stand,
and that's our lemonade days. So this year was our
biggest ever. We actually had thirty five hundred this year,
but they were spread throughout the month and we'll raise
close to two million with just those lemonade stands just
in June alone.
Speaker 4 (10:46):
And that's just.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
This guy over here deciding he's going to put a
lemonade stand in and everything he raises, he sends the foundation.
That's right, yep, Okay, well that's great. But thirty five
hundred is a relatively low number. We need to get
up to ten thousand. People haven't and raised five million.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
That is so interesting you say that because we had
a meeting to talk about lemonade days for next year.
And my husband has to get a lot of credit
for being the just like Alex, the always pushing wait, wait, wait,
more and more and more. And so we did three
five hundred and I said, I think the goal could
be five thousand next year, and Jay said five thousand.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I think it should be ten thousand.
Speaker 4 (11:25):
Where I didn't know that I picked that number.
Speaker 1 (11:26):
I half, but if you think about the numbers of
people in the United States, right, thirty five hundred is
a relatively no number. We should have five hundred and Memphis.
I mean if you multiplied that times the fifty largest
municipalities in the country and added in I don't even
think ten thousands about if you really think about it,
(11:49):
I mean, how hard is it you set up elimonade
saying you picked the Jai Everybody's for charity. You get
everybody in your neighborhood to come by, and you send
the check to the thing. I don't know why that
doesn't work.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
It works.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
It works incredibly well, and not only that, I got
to work harder. We're doing all we care, Yeahue, but
there is always more to be done. We constantly have
to think about how do we bring new people into the.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Army to help us solve this problem for families.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
A lot of the people who participate are people with
a personal connection to childhood cancer. We need everybody, even
if you don't have a child with cancer or a
niece or nephew, to recognize that this is a cause
that needs your help, needs your support. And it's really
easy to do and it's fun. Kids love doing it.
They get to do something that they actually can actively
(12:41):
participate in and lead that's contributing to.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Help sororities, fraternities, college campuses. My mind is running wild
about people that should be doing this right now. And
now I'm starting to get a little angry that there's
only thirty five hundred.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
If I think about it completely, we.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Did have at least one in every state this year.
Very cool and yeah, actually Hawai only had one. Alaska
there was five, so that was the most we've ever
had in the.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Last Elimonade's got to be a tough sale in Alaska. Well,
I guess in June it gets warmer.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, I think right, there's not as many people there,
So I don't know if setting up like in your
yard is really going to be super profitable.
Speaker 3 (13:16):
You might have to think about the location.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Well, it depends on how many kids you have knocking
on doors that day.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Right, Yeah, we'll be right back. So this thing is
(13:40):
morphed and I'm looking for notes. So now you've got
two things and I'll let you just take it as
you want to. One is, you've got the one cup
at a time club, you can host a lemonade stand.
You got the million mile I want you to share
all of that. But have you've been able to connect
(14:05):
with families and children that you know have been directly
impacted by Alex's founding and you guys shepherding this stream
of hers, Yes, tell us about one cuple of time
they now, and tell us about the payoff that as
(14:26):
a mom you at least get to see other families
positively impacted by your daughter's journey.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, so I'll do the self first, right, So you
can have a lemonade sand, you can join our monthly giving.
It's a great way, you know. Five dollars a month,
ten dollars a month. You're part of the club one
Cup at a time club, and we're trying to grow
that to ten thousand as well. We're in the low
thousands now. It's a monthly giving, a recurring giving. So
you go to our website and you say, yes, I
(14:54):
want to give five dollars a month every month or
ten or some people give a hundred. Whatever you want
to give per month. It comes out we automatically. We
charge your card automatically. But it's more than that. You
get monthly contact from us, sharing progress and notes. But
really just know that over time, just like Alex showed us,
like that incremental one cup at a time, small donations
(15:16):
can add up to a lot of money.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Just donate a one time donation. We take it all.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
But we have a big event in September, which is
Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and that's top of mine. Now,
you can have a lemonade stand any time of year.
I just want to say, but in September we all
get together. Last year we had twenty five thousand people
we're trying to grow it this year who create a
page a team on our website and they set a
goal for how many miles they want to walk, run, bike,
you can count your steps, whatever we need to do
(15:44):
to get to a million miles all together for kids
with cancer. And that event has become our largest sort
of community event. It's virtual, you just do it wherever
you are and we will hopefully raise well over two
million dollars through that event this year, hopefully closer to three.
So all of these things we do, we have events
in different a few different cities. But all of that
(16:06):
is not because we love running around like lunatics, planning
events and trying to get people to do lemonades.
Speaker 4 (16:12):
So kind of Memphis, talking to fat redheaded guys all that.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
But because we now know that we are making progress,
and that is really because of the families who we
have been so fortunate have taken the time because they
were told by their doctor about Alex's and how alex
Is lemonade and Alex's life made their treatment possible to
come to us and say thank you, and I want
(16:36):
to be a part of what you're doing. We also
have some family support programs, so we've met many families
through that. So if you know of a family who's
who is fighting childhood cancer, or has even we have
somebody on staff who can help them with whatever resources they.
Speaker 4 (16:49):
Need, including travel and something.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
Including travel if you need to travel to another hospital,
as we did for an innovative or new therapy. We
have a sibling support program. We have a lot of
educational materials for families. But really, I mean, there's so
many stories. I would say one of my favorite is
a young boy named Philip who was not local to Philadelphia,
(17:18):
but he had the same cancer as Alex and just
like our family, nothing had worked, and they were told
that he would not survive, but.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
He was I believe.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Oh let me think he was maybe five four or
five years old at this point.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
So, I mean, you guys know this story, yes, I
mean this is personal to you.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Probably we know the story well and we know what
it's like to then find out there is a clinical
trial that might help your child, feeling that hope, but
knowing that you know it was maybe unlikely or you
could be crushed again because it might not work. So
they ended up participating in this trial that we we
(18:02):
had funded at various parts of in its whole lifetime
of discovery to trial, and we had heard about this
child from the researcher, and she kept saying, I want
you to meet this family. I really think you need
to meet this family. And he was cured. He was cured,
and this was not cured. It was not a toxic treatment,
(18:25):
it was a pill. His hair grew back. So the
parents are sitting there saying, this can't be working right,
it's too easy, Like were they giving him a placebo
or something? And his cancer melted away. And so we
had heard of him. But one day it happened to
be Alex's birthday a couple of years ago. I'm not
(18:46):
usually in the office a lot of times. I just
take the day to do whatever I feel like doing.
But I had to be in the office for something
that day and this family stops by. I didn't know
who they were, and she said, are you Liz And
I said yes, and she just started crying and she
hugged me, and you know, she said, that's Philip, and
(19:07):
I still wasn't connecting and she said, that's Philip, my son.
And he was running all around the office. And I
think he was probably ten at the time. He's like
twelve or thirteen now. And she said, Philip, the little
boy who Alex saved, and of course I started crying,
(19:28):
and they stayed for a while and we talked to
him and we've become friends since. But that's just one family.
But as I sat there with them on her birthday,
I thought, how incredible, how incredible on this day when
you need something right to show you that Alex is
still alive in so many ways, to have this child
(19:51):
there just running around care free, feeling great, several years
cancer free, literally because of what she created her life,
and it was such a gift to me. But that's
happened so many times over, just not necessarily on her birthday,
and it never gets old. As they say, I'm so
grateful to those families for being willing to share and
(20:14):
to allow me to be a part of their experience
and to think that Alex was a part of their child.
We had one family that tells us every year on
their daughter's birthday, they light a candle for Alex because
they know without Alex their daughter would not be celebrating
her birthday.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Their daughter's birthday, they.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
Light a candle and she's like seventeen now she had this.
She was in the same boat as a toddler. They
were considered and curable, so we know there's progress, but sadly,
there's many times where kids don't make it, and that's
it takes us right back.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
That's so so hard when you know a family.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
But does that create even more determination to do more? Absolutely,
it's not defeating.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
It's more fueling.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's fueling because it makes us realize that as much
as we should and do celebrate the successes, there's not
enough of them. We have many, many, many more successes
to come, and the only way we're going to do
that is to just keep pushing and selling lemonade.
Speaker 3 (21:18):
And they need to do yep.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I know, Philip and the birthday cake people and millions
of others are really glad that Alex was so steadfast
and perturbing that you finally gave in on that June day,
you know, born from a little girl who just wanted
(21:45):
to have a lemonade stand and give money away to
this it's just, you know, I think it's why it's
twenty years old and still going strong. I think it's
why the national media has loved this story forever. Liz,
my goodness, what a legacy your daughter has left. We
(22:06):
have a few minutes, okay, and I know, for everybody listening,
we're gonna, I think they're gonna we're gonna have a
lemonade stand outside of Firebirds here in a little bit,
and you're gonna hang around, aren't you.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, good. But for those of you who took the
time to join us today, you have a chance now
from the horse's mouth, if you have any questions about Alex,
Alex's lemon and the aid stand, the foundation, I ain't
get involved. Anybody wants to ask any questions, here she is.
(22:39):
And if you don't, and you don't feel weird, you
don't have to, and we can close it anybody. Maybe
I'll start off with one as people think, if is
there a story of no bad days Frankie?
Speaker 4 (22:50):
If you remember that.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Yes, so I just mentioned that.
Speaker 2 (22:54):
It's it's always it's really hard when you we meet
a lot of families and we get attached to them
in their stories, even if we've actually never met them.
But in Frankie's case, we had met his family several times.
We have an army to keep using your word of ambassadors.
So these are families across the country who participate with
us and share their story. And Frankie's family was one
(23:15):
of those families, and we met him when he was
kind of first through his treatment for brain tumors, and
his mom.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Told the story about Frankie.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
In kindergarten, starting kindergarten and he had just spent the
summer fighting a brain tumor. And the kindergarten teacher talked,
was kind of having their circle time talking about the
I hope I'm getting the story right paraphrasing, talking about
maybe like what the class would be like, and she
talked about bad days and we could have good days,
and we have bad days, and you know, has anybody
(23:44):
ever had a bad day?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
And every hand went.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Up except Frankie. And she said, Frankie, you've never had
a bad day.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
And he said no. She said you've never.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Had a bad day and he said, no, no bad days,
And that became Frankie would go on to to continue
to fight his brain cancer. Ultimately was considered in remission
or stable, but the side effects from the horrendous treatment
that we have to give kids for brain tumors ultimately
ended up taking his life. So Frankie passed away shortly after.
(24:15):
He spoke at one of our lemon balls, but that
became his family's rallying cry no bad Days, and I
think for me.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
Very much like some of the things Alex said in
her life.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
It really shows you how these kids are able to
deal with what they deal with and.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
Just have this incredible spirit and energy.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
And that's what we're fighting for, because we want no
bad days for all of those kids, right and we
want kids like Frankie to have the chance to just
do amazing things in their lives with their attitude and
their inspiration for so many people, so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (24:58):
Anybody else.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Okay, well, I'm so honored you came to join us
and tell Alex's story in the Foundation story and continue
to inspire people get involved. And I hope everybody out
there listening to this right now when this podcast goes live,
thirty five hundred lemonade stands in June is not enough.
(25:25):
I get emails all the time from listeners that are
I'm so inspired. I'm looking for something to do to
get involved. This doesn't have to be something you get
involved in a due month after month.
Speaker 4 (25:36):
You can literally do a one day event. That's right, yep,
one day of ent a year.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Let's be part of the group that helps helps Liz
and her crew take this thing to ten thousand people
in June. And all you got to do is go
to your website right.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Yes, it's free to sign up, and there's no you
don't have to raise a certain amount of money.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
We make it very easy. You get your own little page.
We send you a kit of materials to get you started.
Speaker 4 (26:03):
How hard is that?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
What's website Alexleimonade dot org or just google Alex's Lemonade
Stand find us.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
He's enough, f Liz, thanks for coming, Thanks for hanging
around and meeting the folks and selling little lemonade outside.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
And it is by my distinct pleasure and honor to
meet you.
Speaker 3 (26:21):
Thanks for being here, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
And thank you for joining us this week. If Liz
Scott has not inspired you, you have a problem. But
if she has inspired you in general or better yet,
to take action by hosting a lemonade stand that benefits
Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, which is easy to do, it's
(26:51):
a one day thing. Or joining their donor club called
One Cup at a Time, which is really easy to
do because they just charge your credit card five bucks
a month, like you can't miss that, or participating in
the million mile, which is a little harder to do.
If you're fat like me, or something else entirely, please
let me know I'd love to hear about it. You
(27:12):
can write me anytime at Bill at normal folks dot
us and I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode,
please share it with friends and on social Subscribe to
the podcast, rate it, review it, Join the Army at
normal folks dot us consider becoming a premium member there,
Good grief, help us grow at Army and Normal Folks.
(27:34):
I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, let's do what we
can
Host
Bill Courtney
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