Local kids make lemonade to help fight cancer

By: ELIZABETH WEST
Associate Editor

A group of local kids hosted an Alex’s Lemonade Stand Friday to help raise funds and awareness for the fight against childhood cancer. With a goal of raising $400, the youngsters set up their lemonade stand on the busy LaSalle Street outside of Ted Tolbert’s State Farm Insurance office.
“We decided to do this after my son Nicholas asked me if he could sell his toys and give the money to people that needed it,” said Nasen Soileau, whose children were hosting the stand. “I saw someone hosting one of these lemonade stands at Target one day and decided we could do this.”
The kids began setting up the lemonade stand at 7:45 Friday morning and “have worked hard getting everything together,” added Soileau.
Mr. Soileau’s 10-year-old daughter Carlee Soileau feels a personal connection to Alex’s Lemonade Stand having lost an aunt to the unfortunate disease. Although her aunt was not a child battling cancer, she still is able to grasp the severity of the disease for the person suffering from it as well as for family members of the sick.
“My aunt died from cancer and I barely got to know her,” Carlee said. “I want to help people get more time with their family.”
The lemonade being sold was freshly made by Ann-Alyse, Carlee, Nicholas and Sadie Soileau. Mr. Soileau’s children were also accompanied by Thomas and Lyla Tolbert, children of Ted Tolbert.
The process the children used to produce such delicious lemonade was to cut the lemons, which were donated by Kyle McFarlain, and then juice them and mix the lemon juice with sugar water.
Three-year-old Sadie said that out of the whole process her “favorite thing to do is juicing.” She spent most of her time performing that task on Friday morning. Sadie did find time for a few breaks to re-hydrate on some of the stand’s own homemade lemonade.   
By 11:30 a.m. the kids had already surpassed their goal of $400.00 but stopping the sale of lemonade was not an option. They continued selling until 5:30 p.m.
Due to the success of hosting Alex’s Lemonade Stand, Mr. Soileau said, “We may try to make this an annual event.”
Alex’s Lemonade Stand was started by Connecticut cancer patient Alexandra Scott at the age of four-years-old. It was her mission to raise money to help find a cure for every child with cancer. In 2004, eight-year-old Alex lost her fight to cancer but her fight to cure all children suffering from the disease still lives on as she had helped raised more than a million dollars at the time of her passing.
You can learn more about Alex’s story and more about the foundation by visiting AlexsLemonade.org.