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Good taste, good feelings
Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation
By SEAN BARRON
STRUTHERS
If you decide to donate to Dylan Featsent’s lemonade stand in a few weeks, you likely will leave with more than a good drink.
You’ll also go to your next destination with something that will outlast the good taste: good feelings.
That’s because the 7-year-old Struthers Elementary School first-grader wants to do more than quench the thirst of passers-by on a summer afternoon. He also intends to raise money on behalf of cancer research and finding a cure for the disease.
“I want people to donate what they can,” Dylan said recently. “I like helping people.”
Dylan will be asking for donations from 2 to 4 p.m. June 12 at his residence, 478 8th St.
His stand will be one of many set up throughout the country June 11 to 13 that will benefit Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, a 10-year-old organization named in memory of Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who died from cancer in 2004 at age 8.
Dylan added that he hopes his teacher and classmates will be among those who come.
So far, the family has received about $130 in online donations, noted Dylan’s mother, Christine Featsent, a training specialist for a Sacramento, Calif.-based company that makes software for eye doctors.
Mrs. Featsent explained that some of her relatives suffer from cancer and that she wanted to instill in her son that even though he’s healthy, some children his age aren’t. So after conducting online research, she came upon ALSF, she said.
“I went online, looked at Alex’s Lemonade Stand and it was an instant yes,” she added. “Looking at the information sucked me right in.”
Around the same time, Dylan, without prompting, told his parents he wanted to help someone, explained his father, Rich.
“Dylan came up out of the blue and said he wanted to do something for charity,” said Rich Featsent, a truck driver for Intigral Insulated Glass, a Cleveland-based company with an office in Austintown.
Dylan, who said the idea came about partly from having seen lemonade stands in his neighborhood, added that this will be his first time accepting donations and helping to run his own stand. Also assisting will be his grandmother and an aunt.