Alex's Lemonade Stand- We Raised $241.55!

One thing I love about my sorority is that our name is synonymous with community service. We have won the IGC Community Service Award for three years in a row and my goal is to make it 4 years. I am the Community Service Chair of Sigma Gamma Phi for this semester, and over the summer, I thought of a lot of new community service ideas. One of those ideas was Alex's Lemonade Stand.

Alex's Lemonade Stand is a charity that supports childhood cancer research. Alex Scott was a little girl from Pennsylvania who was diagnosed with cancer. When she was 4 years old, she set up a lemonade stand in her hometown and all the proceeds would benefit childhood cancer research. She set up stands until she passed away in 2004 at 8 years old. Ever since then, it has become a movement across the country, and this summer I had the chance to participate in a Alex's Lemonade Stand with my youth leadership group and we had raised $300. It was so amazing and I knew that I wanted to do it in Oneonta.

On Saturday, September 6th, we held our first Alex's Lemonade Stand at Oneonta Wal-Mart. At first, it seemed like all the odds were against us: it was raining all day, and when we arrived at Wal-Mart, it was shut down due to a transformer fire that affected all of Southside Oneonta. However, we waited the power outage out and we started to collect money.

But the thing was, we weren't just sitting on a bench pouring out lemonade every now and then- we had the chance to meet a lot of amazing people with unique stories. 2 of our alumni who live in the immediate area stopped by to give us money, a man donated $10 in memory of his wife who passed away from cancer. As he told us the story, we were all either crying or just tearing up. I also met a man who donated money who was crying because he had a flashback of his friend who passed away during 9/11...and on the lighter side I also got to meet a man named Sal Claps...who knew that I would meet someone who's last name is my nickname.

All in all, it was a successful day and I am so happy that we did this event.

If you would like more information about Alex's Lemonade Stand, please visit http://www.alexslemonade.org/

Keep on keepin' on
Claps