In 2000, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation started in the front yard of 4-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott’s home in Philadelphia. Alex was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for all children who were suffering from it. Alex set up a lemonade stand in her front yard and soon after, people from across the nation set up their own lemonade stands to support her efforts to find cures for pediatric cancer. When she passed away at the age of eight, she had raised over one million dollars. Since then, the foundation bearing her name has evolved into a national fundraising movement and Canada.
Kick-It is a program of the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and a national volunteer-driven effort focused solely on raising money for childhood cancer research. In 2009, Kick-It was founded in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, by 10-year-old Quinn Clarke during his second battle with cancer. Quinn asked his parents if he could have a kickball game to raise money for cancer research and was shocked when more than 500 people supported his game.
In 2012, Ohio All-State football player, Matt Colella, who had battled cancer as a middle school student, started the Kick-It Champions program by asking others to pledge a dollar amount for each point he made as his high school’s football team’s kicker or by making a one-time donation towards his fundraising goal.
Payne Williams is a senior kicker for the St. Mary’s Catholic School football team. In 2022, after attending the Kohl’s Kicking Scholarship Camp in Gatlinburg, Tenn., he registered with Kick-It Champions and during the 2022-2023 football season, raised over $3,000 to assist in cancer research. For the 2023-2024 football season, supporters can again help Payne raise funds by donating an amount for each time he scores a point, either through a successful field goal or extra point, or by making a one-time donation.
All funds raised through the Kick-It Champions program go directly to Alex’s Lemonade Stand for Childhood Cancer Research, a registered 501(c)3 charity, which has funded projects at nearly 150 leadings hospitals and institutions across the United States and Canada. Since 2000, more than 250 million dollars has been raised to fund over 1,000 research projects.
In order to donate, please go to Alex’s Lemonade Stand at https://www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/3518303. Thank you for supporting Payne and pediatric cancer research.