School lemonade stand raises money for cancer research

"That'll be 50 cents." And it pays for a cup of lemonade and, maybe someday, a cure for cancer.

Not a bad deal, if you ask students and staff at Earl Slaughter Elementary School in McKinney. They've chosen to honor their late classmate -- Caroline Montgomery, a third-grader who in January lost her battle with cancer -- in seemingly childlike fashion.

They opened a school lemonade stand. And three days, $400 later, it doesn't seem so childish.

"I'm really impressed because not only are the kids into it, but the parents, too," said Audrey Colwell, the first-grade teacher who pushed for Slaughter to enter a nationwide fundraising contest to benefit Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF). "Everybody's into it. It's just snowballed."

Or in this case, cupcaked, cookied and lemonaded. The project started as Colwell's attempt to challenge her high-level readers with Jacqueline Davies' "The Lemonade War," a book about siblings who compete to sell the most lemonade over last five days of their summer vacation.

Looking for an extension to push her students beyond the pages, Colwell came upon ALSF, a charitable organization dedicated to fighting childhood cancer. The foundation has raised more than $50 million and funded more than 200 research projects directed toward finding a cure, according to its website.

It emerged in 2000 from the front-yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra "Alex" Scott, a 4-year-old who wanted to raise money to help rid the disease for all children. Her stand raised $2,000 in one day, and by the time she passed away in 2004, others around the country had raised about $1 million with their own stands. Her parents formed ALSF in her honor.

This year, ALSF partnered with "The Lemonade War" publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for the fundraising campaign. Using business tips explained in Davies' novel, elementary and middle school students around the U.S. began running their own lemonade stands Monday and will continue through April 20, with all proceeds going toward ALSF.

"This campaign focuses on one of our main goals -- to involve kids," said Tracy Weniger, school programs manager for ALSF. "It shows them that even at their age, they can make a difference. They can do anything they set their mind to."

More than 20 schools nationwide, including a college and preschool, have joined the real-life lemonade war, and the foundation had raised more than $1,400 in online donations through Tuesday, Weniger said.

Slaughter Elementary is McKinney ISD's lone contest entrant, and it has gone beyond the call for lemonade. Dubbing themselves "Lemons with Love," the Slaughter team created a Wiki page where parents and supporters can read about the book, Alex and the school's own lost loved one.

"Caroline was a student of mine, so this touches my heart in a special way," said Joli Barker, a second-grade teacher at Slaughter who will launch an eBook on Monday to help raise additional money.

Students' poetry and artwork, and their parents' own lemonade recipes will be available on the eBook, as will links to "The Lemonade War" and ALSF. Buyers can download it to their iPads and iPhones, and proceeds will go to the foundation.

Third-grade teacher Neiter Day and her husband made Slaughter's lemonade stand, which greets guests at the school's front doors. From 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., students sacrifice their recess time to sell lemonade, cake, cookies and cupcakes to their fellow students from every grade level.

Nothing Bundt Cakes donated lemon cake, and Target and other local businesses have done their part to ensure the school has enough wares to last the month. Parents have brought in lemonade mix and baked lemon goods every day this week.

"It's unbelievable the amount of people who have donated to us," said Tracy Newton, school counselor and a breast cancer survivor. "We haven't had to go out and buy anything."

Newton, who has read Davies' story and explained their stand's significance to most of the students, found out last Thursday she's in remission. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, 2005 and 2010.

She walks the survivor laps at school Relay for Life events with Sophie, a young Slaughter student who lost part of her leg to cancer but with a prosthetic "still runs up and down these halls every day," Newton said.

"You don't think of children getting cancer," she said. "This is very passionate for me because I would like to have a cure for kids and adults. I just know that there's got to be something out there."

And Slaughter is doing all it can to help find that "something," one cup at a time. Colwell's initial goal was to raise $1,000, but they're almost halfway there just a few days into the contest.

Students are making it happen, perhaps because the method to the money is one with which they're well familiar. Lemonade stands may seem childish, but the Slaughter stand's purpose and results couldn't be farther from it.

"The kids want to be a part of this," Newton said. "They're not just doing it for all children. They're doing it for Sophie and Caroline."

To download Slaughter's eBook and find more information about ALSF and the lemonade stand project, visit tinyurl.com/lemonsforlove.

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