Today is the 131st running of the Kentucky Derby. I'll be rooting for Afleet Alex, not because I know anything about horse racing but because I knew Alex Scott, know her family and the Scott's are doing a great thing today - they are fighting for children with cancer. Today they have a horse helping them out.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Forget the mint juleps. Put down that $6 concession stand bottle of beer. This is a Kentucky Derby for lemonade. Especially if Afleet Alex, one of the more accomplished hopefuls in Saturday's 131st Run for the Roses, is as brave in the Churchill Downs stretch as a little girl named Alexandra "Alex" Scott was living her life. All eight years of it.
More on the flip...
When Alex was 4, she started
Alex's Lemonade Stand to raise money for pediatric cancer research. That's because two days before her first birthday, Alex was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. She said she wanted to "help her hospital."
The first stand, in the front yard of Alex's suburban Philadelphia home, opened in the summer of 2000. Before she died last August holding the hands of her parents, and after word had spread of her bittersweet battle to help others, Alex had raised more than $700,000.
To date Alex's parents Jay and Liz, her brothers Patrick, Eddie and little Joe, and a world of good and decent people have raised $1.6 million dollars to support Pediatric Cancer Research. Click here to see all the research and trials funded by Alex and her dream.
Today, they will run the 131st Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. But each and every day there is a great race involving our children, children racing to find a cure for pediatric cancer. I hope it's a beautiful warm day in Louisville and I hope they drink more lemonade than mint julips.
Please support Alex's Lemonade Stand For Pediatric Cancer Research
So step up to the window and grab some lemonade. Enjoy the race, use this as a Kentucy Derby Open Thread and raise your glass in tribute to a real hero, Alex Scott.