Fighting childhood cancer one cup at a time

WESTFALL — When life handed Delaware Valley High School classes lemons, they fought cancer. On March 30, students in the combination social studies-English courses, led by teachers Nicole Cosentino and Leslie Lordi, hosted an annual event to both bring in money and increase awareness of childhood cancer: a lemonade stand. The stand, however, was situated in the 9/10 and 11/12 high school lunch rooms, rather than at the end of a neighborhood driveway, and is part of an initiative known as “Alex’s Lemonade Stand.” In 2000, four year old Alexandra Scott set up the first drink stand of a campaign to raise money to contribute to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Before dying four years later of the disease, Scott not only generated over $1 million through her lemonade endeavor, but also created a foundation that has lived on for almost a decade. The high school classes jumped on the lemonade stand bandwagon at least three years ago, selling cups of lemonade, tattoos, and lemon name tags for 50 cents each for one day each spring. Students prepared several days in advance for the event, which has generated over $1,000 each year at DV, by making t-shirts, hanging fliers, and providing reminders through morning announcements. According to Cosentino, she won’t know the total revenue raised until all receipts are in.