Rita’s Water Ice and Alex’s Lemonade Team Up For A Good Cause

The month of July has brought with it the heat of summer.  But with the help of Rita’s Water Ice on East Philadelphia Avenue in Boyertown, July also meant cooling down with lemonade as well as raising money for pediatric cancer research.

The well known Rita’s Water Ice chains have made Alex’s Lemonade Stand their official charity.  Of course most people will be able to tell you exactly who Alexandra “Alex” Scott was.  She was a brave little girl who at the age of four approached her mom with an idea that became a nationally known phenomenon.  She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer, called neuroblastoma, in 2000.  Alex wanted to raise money to help her doctors figure out this disease.  So she and her brother Patrick planted a lemonade stand in their front yard which yielded $2000 in one day.  The rest is history as lemonade stands popped up all over the United States to help her with her cause.  So far Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised $6 million dollars in its first two years.  The goal is to raise $25 million dollars in 5 years.

Parish and Brenda Stauffer, owners of the Boyertown Rita’s, have certainly joined in to lend a hand towards that goal.  The Stauffer’s had events throughout July to raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. They raised more than $2,000 selling paper lemons throughout July at $1 a piece.  Those lemons are literally covering every wall inside the business.  The “Wall of Hope” has lemons spelling out the name “Alex” and another wall has lemons in the shape of a heart.  A crowd of more than a hundred people came out to support the cause and to watch more than 15 volunteers have their heads shaved in support of all of the children that lose their hair to cancer treatments.  Six of the newly shaved volunteers were named Alex.  Michelle’s Hair Designs of Reading Avenue provided their services free of charge for the event and Reading station Y102 provided a sound system.  Miss Pennsylvania, 17 year old Erin Good, made an appearance to give her support of the event and greet the thirsty crowd as well as several volunteers who manned Alex’s Lemonade Stand.  Liz and Jay Scott, Alex’s parents, were at the event as well as her brothers Patrick, Eddie, and Joseph.  They addressed the crowd with Alex’s heartwarming story and posed for pictures with Rita’s owners and the volunteers of the head shaving event.

For more information on Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and how you can make a difference, visit www.alexslemonade.org.