Putting the squeeze on cancer

DE PERE – Some West De Pere eighth grade girls are making their mark in the community, with their second annual Lemon Market for Childhood Cancer, held Aug. 14-15.

Andrew Winters, the father of one of the girls who began the event, noted that last year, “We raised $14,000 and distributed that to Children’s of Wisconsin and Ronald McDonald house. And this year we’re donating to those charities again, but also the Pott family and the Hungerford family, whose boys have A.L.L. leukemia.”

The drive started when Winters’ daughter, Ella, was diagnosed with cancer.

Her older sister, Ava, and her sister’s friend decided to host a lemonade stand to raise money for cancer foundations.

“Nobody knew how big a community response we would have last year. They set their goal at $500 last year and we ended up raising $14,000,” Winters added.

Completely run by these girls and their families, “you could call it just a grassroots group of girls. A bunch of eighth graders from West De Pere and committed moms and dads and people who just want to make a difference,” said Winters.

However, the community effort was noticed by larger organizations.

“The Pink Flamingos just came by to help support,” said Winters, “And Urban Battlefield here has donated us some space. Thrivent has donated money the last two years to help support this, so we do have some corporate donors who are really kind of helping us out, but there’s no underlying big companies supporting this. It’s all just passion and just a desire to give back. “

As a parent who went through caring for a child with cancer, Winters acknowledged the necessity of funds to support families through these difficult times.

Aside from medical bills, he pointed out that, “There’s child care that you don’t realize you’re going to have to deal with because both parents are in the hospital with the kid. There is travel involved, there’s meals on the run…We went through it last year…There are all sorts of things that families need help with, and we’re just happy to help.”

Ella highlighted the importance of community, saying “It’s really hard, but if you have a lot of help and support from your family,” she could persevere.

In the future, Ella said, “I’m hoping to see how this event can grow, and I want to see more people come.”

Andrew expressed his support for the grassroots charity event, adding “I think there’s a pretty amazing group of West De Pere girls who are just kind-hearted and wanted to do something and wanted to give back.”