Photo by Lynnie Piemonte
Garbed in Texas BBQ style, special guest servers pose at the buffet table for Stomp Out Cancer.
Chilly rain didn’t stop guests from attending the Stomp Out Cancer fundraiser on May 19. Held on the grounds and in the barn of the Phelps-Hatheway House, this annual fundraiser raised over $36,000 for the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Guests danced to the music of country-western band Whiskey, Wine, and Coke and enjoyed Texas style BBQ catered by CFC BBQ of Southwick.
The fundraiser was coordinated and held by Driving For a Cure, a former Relay For Life team. The team lost valuable team member Kyla Pokorny last year to the disease, and Pokorney family members were special guest servers at the event. Also serving were members of the Flynn family, cousins of little Alex Scott, whose lemonade stand motivated the foundation.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation is a national childhood cancer foundation dedicated to raising funds for research into new treatments and cures for all children battling cancer. Founded by the parents of Alex Scott, the foundation continues the work that Alex began with her first lemonade stand. Her goal was to sell lemonade and give the money raised to doctors to help them find a cure for cancer. Alex lost her battle with cancer in 2004 but her vision continues. To date, the Foundation has raised over $150 million dollars and funded 800 cutting edge research projects at 135 institutions.
The dollars raised at Stomp will go toward much-needed research to fight Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of cancer that occurs in bones or in the soft tissue around the bones. This cancer most often begins in the long bones of the pelvis, legs or arms, but it can occur in any bone. It typically affects children and teenagers.