Lemonade Stand To Raise Money Saturday
‘When Life Hands You Lemons...’
By Jessica Delaney

The idea came from almost nowhere. Sarah Johnson, who works for the Adult Services for Ishpeming/Negaunee/Nice during the winter months and on Mackinac Island for Ryba’s Fudge during the summer, was driving down the highway when she noticed billboards of celebrities ranging from Christopher Reeve to Whoopi Goldberg to Kermit the Frog, all with one thing in common: a positive message and a Web site for ordering posters.

From the Web site, Ms. Johnson ordered posters for her classroom at an alternative high school. One depicted an 8-year-old girl sitting behind a lemonade stand.

Alexandra “Alex” Scott was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a childhood cancer, when she was just six months old. When she was four, she decided to raise money for her hospital with a lemonade stand. In July 2000, she raised more than $2,000 for Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. The lemonade stand grew in popularity over the years and was featured in newspapers and television shows, and in 2004, raised more than $1.5 million. By this time, Alex wasn’t working alone. The young girl had started a national campaign to raise money for cancer research, and volunteers across the country set up lemonade stands and hosted fundraisers for the hospital. The campaign has attracted corporate sponsors and now includes children’s books.

In Ms. Johnson’s classroom, the poster stood as proof of what positive thinking can do, and she encouraged her students to reach for their dreams and “have their own lemonade stands.”

Alex died August 1, 2004, but her lemonade stand continues to raise money. One of those stands will be on Mackinac Island this Saturday, set up by Sarah Johnson to commemorate the start of the national Lemonade Stand campaign for 2005. “““Her story is lovely,” Ms. Johnson said of Alex. “She could have taken what she was given and been lonely and miserable, but she chose to do something about it.”

The goal of this year’s national lemonade stand effort is to raise $5 million. Ms. Johnson doesn’t have any particular monetary goal, but she wants to help in any way she can.

She will operate her stand Saturday, June 11, beside Trinity Episcopal Church on Fort Street, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine. Offered with the lemonade will be baked goods from local people wanting to help. Lemonade will be delivered to those unable to get out, and proceeds will be sent to the nonprofit national center for Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

There will be no cost for the lemonade, but donations of all sizes will be accepted, and Ms. Johnson is optimistic.

“This is such an incredibly giving community,” she said, “and all you have to do is ask for help and people are generous. I want to get the community together and involved, and to have fun.”

A few years ago, Ms. Johnson raised almost $9,000 for AIDS from the island community by riding her bike through Alaska. Though she does not have such a high goal set for the lemonade stand, she said that the experience made her realize how generous her community is.

For more information on the national campaign for Alex’s Lemonade Stands, visit the website at www.alexslemonade.com