Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) recently awarded a refreshing $100,000 to three nurse researchers. Pam Hinds, RN, PhD, Celeste Phillips-Salimi, PhD, and Gloanna Peek, RN, MSN, received varying amounts over the next two years to study childhood and adolescent and young adult cancer. ALSF added the Nurse Researcher Grant Program to its funding portfolio in 2007, making it the first national childhood charity to fund nursing research.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004). With the vision of finding a cure for all childhood cancers, Alex set out to hold lemonade stands to raise funds to do just that. A decade later, the Foundation bearing her name funds both medical and nursing research which aims to not only find better treatments and cures for all childhood cancers, but to improve the quality of care and life for children and their families fighting the disease now. To date, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a registered 501(c)3 charity, has raised more than $50 million toward fulfilling Alex’s dream of finding a cure, funding over 200 research projects nationally including those examining leukemia, brain tumors, neuroblastoma, Wilm’s tumor, lymphoma, and osteosarcoma, among others.

Bravo, ALF; cheers to our nurse colleagues!