FALLBROOK: Kids raise money for childhood cancer foundation

Lemonade stand proceeds to be donated to organization

By John Raifsnider - For The North County Times | Sunday, July 27, 2008 7:10 PM PDT ∞

FALLBROOK ---- Children who attend a local preschool learned a lesson recently about helping others, particularly kids their age facing life-threatening illnesses.

April Hueftle, a teacher at Willows End Nursery School in Fallbrook, helped some of her students coordinate a lemonade stand at Friday to raise money for the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation.

The foundation is named for 8-year-old Alexandra Scott, who in 2004 died of neuroblastoma, a form of childhood cancer.

Donations to the foundation are used to award grants to research centers and hospitals that study new therapies for the treatment of childhood cancers. The foundation is based in Wynnewood, Penn.

Hueftle said she saw the foundation featured in a recent national TV news report and wanted to do something to help.

On Friday, she supervised five children from the school who poured lemonade and sold lemon-flavored candy to visitors at the Hot Summer Nights event in downtown Fallbrook.

"When I saw them talking about this program, I thought right away that this would be a great way to teach the children at the school, and my own kids, about helping others," said Hueftle, a mother of three.

"The kids at school were very interested in learning about the program and about Alex ---- what she liked to do and what she looked like," Hueftle added. "(They) were comparing Alex's blue eyes and her curly hair to some of the kids we have at the school that have blue eyes and curly hair.

The lemonade stand was set up outside a downtown candy store owned by Maribell Moran, who also runs the school. After a slow start on Friday, business at the stand picked up and donations ---- which will be accepted until week's end ---- are expected to surpass the $300 goal set by volunteers, Hueftle said.

Because the lemonade stand was at the far end of Main, she said the children had to get creative to draw attention to it.

"After a while, we sent some kids into the crowd to sell some of the lemon candy, and pretty soon people started making their way to the stand," she said. "Then we got really busy and it turned out to be a good night of fundraising."

Donations will be accepted through Friday and can be made by contacting April Hueftle at (951) 805-8843.

For more information on the Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, or to make a donation to the program, visit www.alexslemonade.org.