Children learn to help others by selling lemonade

By THERESA HOGUE

Gazette-Times reporter

Taking advantage of rush hour traffic on Witham Hill Drive on Thursday afternoon, Monique Arnold and her three children, Kenneth, 2½, Victoria, 4½, and Elizabeth, 6, shouted cheerfully at vehicles, waving signs with lemons sketched on them.

"Lemonade!" a chorus of Arnolds yelled as the traffic rolled by.

The family already had a solid collection of bills on the table, but they were anxious to collect more - for children with cancer. They know what that's all about.

Last November, Monique was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She underwent treatment between January and May. Her most recent checkup was good, and it revealed that the tumor had reduced in size. The diagnosis was a turning point for Monique. She was so weak from treatments that she had to stay with her sister briefly while her husband took care of the kids.

"I told them I don't want them to go through this," Monique said, so she and her kids began looking at ways to help fight childhood cancer.

"If we stop it (at childhood), then fewer adults have to go through it," she said.

Elizabeth, the eldest, said she helped come up with the idea of running a lemonade stand to raise money from something she saw in a magazine. She helped her mom make the lemonade.

"You have to stir it, and then put on the cap and serve the people," she said with a smile.

They based their stand idea on a project called "Alex's Lemonade Stand," a foundation to fight childhood cancer created in honor of an 8-year-old girl named Alexandra Scott of Philadelphia, who died of the disease in 2004.

Since Scott's death, her foundation has raised more than $20 million for childhood cancer research.

Monique said she wants her kids to learn how to help others.

"These days kids don't do anything, they don't do bake sales, they don't go door to door," she said. "For three days, we've been here, and we've made $66.65."

Kenneth is a little young to know why he's waving a sign, but he's happy to do it. Victoria and Elizabeth have a good idea of why they're helping others, because sometimes cancer takes away children just as young as they are.

One of the signs Kenneth waved read "Lemons are pretty good."

So, it appears, is helping others, as evidenced by those who did just that. Lemonade and supplies were donated by Fred Meyer, Richey's Market and Safeway.

For more information, see www.alexslemonade.org.