{"id":5213,"date":"2026-02-06T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5213"},"modified":"2026-02-06T09:00:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T14:00:44","slug":"make-a-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/make-a-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"Make a Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>
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In 1997, two days before her first birthday, Alexandra \u201cAlex\u201d Scott was diagnosed with a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.
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At first Alex made good progress in overcoming her disease.\u00a0By age two she had learned to stand and walk with leg braces.
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But just before her fourth birthday, doctors learned that her tumors were growing again.\u00a0
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Shortly after receiving a stem cell transplant, she told her mother, \u201cWhen I get out of the hospital I want to have a lemonade stand.\u201d Her goal was to raise money to give to the doctors at her hospital, so they can \u201chelp other kids, like they helped me.\u201d
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In the summer of 2000, with the help of her older brother, Alex opened a lemonade stand in front of her Manchester, Connecticut, home. The stand was a hit, taking in more than $2,000. That\u2019s Alex in the picture above, presiding over her business.
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Selling lemonade became an annual Scott tradition, even when they moved to Pennsylvania to be near Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia.
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That\u2019s where a few media personalities discovered Alex.\u00a0Here was a sick child helping other sick children.\u00a0Could others get in on the act?
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Homemade stands began springing up around the country.\u00a0By 2004 there was at least one \u201cAlex\u2019s Lemonade Stand\u201d in all 50 states.
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Alex set her sights on an audacious goal.\u00a0What if the stands could somehow bring in $1 million to help fund pediatric cancer research? By the summer of 2004, with the help of children from coast to coast, the goal was surpassed.
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But Alex\u2019s health was failing.\u00a0On August 1 of that same year, she succumbed to the cancer she had battled almost all her life.\u00a0She was 8 years old.
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On what would have been her ninth birthday, her parents, Jay and Liz Scott, launched Alex\u2019s Lemonade Stand Foundation to continue the work she had started.\u00a0ALSF has now raised more than $300 million and has helped fund 1,500 cutting-edge research projects.\u00a0Its motto is Fighting Childhood Cancer, One Cup at a Time.<\/em>
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Today there is a Lemon Ball, a Lemon Society, and an annual Lemon Run. The month of June features Lemonade Days. The NBA\u2019s Philadelphia 76ers have renamed their community volunteer award the 76ers Hometown Hero: In the Spirit of Alex Scott Award.\u00a0<\/em>
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But the Foundation is not just a fundraising mechanism or a sponsor of special events.\u00a0
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At its heart, ALSF wants to do what Alex did so amazingly well:\u00a0encourage children to be there for other children.
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When life gave her lemons, Alex made lemonade.
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When your hopes, your plans, your health, or your expectations implode this week, what will you choose to do?
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The apostle James urges us, \u201cConsider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don\u2019t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way\u201d (James 1:2-4, The Message<\/em>).
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Make a stand<\/em>.\u00a0Start turning the tide where you already are:\u00a0one smile, one word of encouragement, or one act of courageous faith at a time.
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It\u2019s always amazing to look up and find out how many others are ready and willing to join you.
\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0In 1997, two days before her first birthday, Alexandra \u201cAlex\u201d Scott was diagnosed with a childhood cancer called neuroblastoma.\u00a0At first Alex made good progress in overcoming her disease.\u00a0By age two she had learned to stand and walk with leg braces.\u00a0But just before her fourth birthday, doctors learned that her tumors were growing… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1075,112,1076],"class_list":["post-5213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-sharing","tag-suffering","tag-volunteering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5213"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5215,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5213\/revisions\/5215"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}