Alicia Flossic’s lemonade is going for $1 a glass this weekend with the young Manteca girl hoping to net enough money to help make a difference with research into childhood cancer.

Flossic is setting up her stand at 900 Maggiore Lane, east of Airport Way and south of Louise Avenue where she is hoping several firefighters will make it by either Saturday or Sunday.  The stand will be open from noon to 6 p.m. both days.

The research fund raiser is named after Alex Scott hence the “Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer” moniker. The young Manteca girl was so inspired by the story of the group effort by kids across the country to help raise funds with their own lemonade stands that she decided to do what she could to bring in more research monies.

Flossic told of the inspirational story of “Alex” Scott who, shortly before her birthday, was diagnosed with neuroblastoma – a type of childhood cancer.  On her first birthday the doctors informed Alex’s parents that if she beat her cancer it was doubtful that she would ever walk again.  Just two weeks later the girl was able to slightly move her leg at the urging of her parents.

By the time she was 2 she was crawling and able to stand up with leg braces.  Alex worked hard to gain strength and to learn how to walk.  It looked like she had beaten the odds until a year later when her tumors started manifesting themselves again.

On the day after her fourth birthday in 2000, she received a stem cell transplant and told her mother, “When I get out of the hospital I want to have a lemonade stand.”

She wanted to give the money she earned to doctors to allow them to help other kids, “like they helped me.” 

True to her word she opened her first lemonade stand later that year with the help of her older brother and raised an amazing $2,000 for her hospital.

While bravely battling her own cancer, Alex and her family continued to hold yearly lemonade stands in her front yard to benefit childhood cancer research.  News spread of the remarkable sick child who was dedicated to helping other sick children.

People from all over the world were moved by her story and held their own lemonade stand fund-raising events and donated the proceeds to Alex and her cause.

Alex passed away at the age of 8 in August of 2004.  She knew that with the help of others she had raised more than $1 million to help find a cure for the disease that took her life.  Alex’s family – including brothers Patrick, Eddie and Joey – and supporters from around the world have committed themselves to continue her inspiring legacy through Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

It is estimated that 12,500 children in the United States and over 240,000 children worldwide develop cancer every year.  Some 2,500 of those children diagnosed in the U.S. will not survive.

And for anyone who would like to donate to the cause of the foundation this weekend, they may go online to www.AlexsLemonade.org.