After hearing about Alex’s Lemonade Stand through Alex’s Story which I told them after hearing it at Smithville School,\u00a0my then\u00a010-year-old\u00a0twins, Joseph and Michael\u00a0wanted to help. Michael asked if\u00a0we could run a stand weekly to help the cause.\u00a0We did so that year.\u00a0We have continued our efforts ever since, although\u00a0the stand format has developed over the years.<\/p>\n
The first summer,\u00a0our family ran a weekly stand on the corner of 9th Street South\u00a0and Ocean Avenue<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0also ran\u00a0our first Family Fun Day Stand.\u00a0 The boys were noted for their volunteerism by Mayor Guenther, and they were recognized for the great number of hours they put into volunteering, by earning the Gold Presidential Award for Volunteerism at the age of 10; after Donna Andros, Girl Scout Leader,\u00a0informed\u00a0our family and they the school about the availability of such an award and the fact that the boys easily qualified for it already, even though it is a challenging award to get.<\/p>\n\n The second summer<\/strong>,\u00a0our\u00a0family realized that\u00a0we made\u00a0most of\u00a0our funds at Big\u00a0Events so\u00a0we tried to challenge\u00a0ourselves to raise more funds; in less time spent volunteering.\u00a0 This is why\u00a0we decided to\u00a0run our stand only at\u00a0Big community events that year; including:\u00a0Family Fun Day, the Historical Society’s Flea market;\u00a0Hooked on Fishing; and the Triathlon.<\/p>\n It was this year that\u00a0we were invited by the Elks to run\u00a0our stand at the Brigantine Elks Bayfest.<\/strong>\u00a0 (Don Irons, currently Past Exalted Ruler, and NJ State Elks Region 1 Youth\u00a0Chair\u00a0was instrumental in leading other community organizations to be aware of the efforts of the Mandes Family Stand, as it was then known, to raise funds for Pediatric Cancer Research. He was the one who\u00a0also invited my husband and myself to be members of the Elks and the rest is history!\u00a0 That year, through the encouragement of Mr. Irons, the V.F.W., the American Legion, and the Elks all made donations to\u00a0the stand.<\/p>\n I believe it\u00a0was also during this year, that Ms. Pollack, from the Alex Hotel found us in Brigantine and decided she wanted to connect with us in some way to help.<\/p>\n The third summer,<\/strong>\u00a0the boys told\u00a0us\u00a0during one of our family meetings about our ideas for the stand that they wanted to run stands weekly\u00a0AND<\/strong>\u00a0at big community events! I, myself, a Smithville School 4th Grade Teacher who stays at home during the summers, decided to continue to follow\u00a0my sons’ lead and get involved in this way.\u00a0 The stand was quite a success; but\u00a0our family was truly exhausted at the end of that summer and needed to take a vacation from\u00a0our “vacation” and celebrated at Disney during Spring Break I believe.<\/p>\n The fourth summer<\/strong>\u00a0that we ran our stand, we decided to change the format to\u00a0holding\u00a0“ONE BIG STAND AGAINST PEDIATRIC CANCER” yearly at Brigantine’s Family Fun Day.\u00a0 This we did\u00a0through 2009; each year, getting more and more business support to make the stand’s proceeds increase!\u00a0 This was done along with online fundraising and a letter-writing campaign to help the cause.<\/p>\n The more business and community support our stand received, the more it was evident to us that this stand was not ours; it was Brigantine’s!\u00a0 That is when it came to be called:\u00a0 Brigantine’s Own Alex’s Lemonade Stand”!<\/p>\n In 2009, the boys decided to start a contest which they called the Youth Challenge Contest.\u00a0 A few different groups of youth participated informally.\u00a0 Some were from Galloway. A few of the boys’ friends in Brigantine helped them with their stands they were holding at the Smile Factory.<\/p>\n In 2010, the stand started evolving even further.\u00a0 It marked the year Michael developed the Magic Lemonade Grants of Jumbo Canisters of Lemonade to youth who would pledge to attempt to raise at least $100 for the cause.\u00a0 Our goal was to inspire other youth and their families in our community to join our team to raise funds to help our town reach our fundraising goal and continue to help fund pediatric cancer research.\u00a0 Our family along with help from the\u00a0Youth Alliance, ran stands\u00a0at the Brigantine Elks Seafood Fest and Bayfest.<\/p>\n The Magic Lemonade Stand idea proved to expand the”Youth Challenge Contest” we ran in 2009. We knew that prior to this year; the\u00a0two young people who were consistent supporters of the stand since 2007 were Anna Maria Carozzo and Hannah Towhey!\u00a0\u00a0After\u00a0Annamaria’s mom shared with her about the boys’ stand; she was inspired to run her own stand\u00a0on Ocean Avenue with the help of her friend, Hannah.\u00a0They have\u00a0done so for\u00a05 years now here\u00a0in Brigantine and donated through the larger “Brigantine’s Own” Stand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story by Julie Mandes; Exhausted, Proud, Happy Mom & Community Member. After hearing about Alex’s Lemonade Stand through Alex’s Story which I told them after hearing it at Smithville School,\u00a0my then\u00a010-year-old\u00a0twins, Joseph and Michael\u00a0wanted to help. Michael asked if\u00a0we could run a stand weekly to help the cause.\u00a0We did so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n