$1,000 Later: Thank You for Showing Up for Alex's Lemonade Stand

This July, we set up lemonade stands at Oakes Kia, Oakes GMC, and Oakes Kia of Olathe to support Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, and to honor the story of our own Bryan Hendrich and his son Quintyn (Q), who beat leukemia after three and a half years of treatment.

Thanks to Oakes team members and customers who stopped by, donated, and spread the word, we raised $1,000 for childhood cancer research.

We weren't sure what to expect going into this. It's one thing to plan a lemonade stand on paper, and another to actually see people pull into the lot, hear a bit about why we were doing it, and decide to chip in anyway, even if they'd never met Bryan or his family. Over three stands and three locations, that's exactly what happened.

Bryan's story is the reason this campaign exists in the first place. His son Q was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia at two and a half years old, spent three and a half years in treatment, and has now been off treatment and considered cured for over a year. Along the way, organizations like Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation supported not just Q, but his older brother Zaidyn (Z) too, through programs like SuperSibs that make sure siblings don't get lost in the shuffle. If you missed it, you can read Bryan's full story, here.

That $1,000 matters more than it might look on a page. Only about 4% of federally allocated cancer research funding goes toward childhood cancers, which means every dollar raised by grassroots efforts like this one carries real weight. It's the kind of funding gap that doesn't get closed by one company or one weekend, but it does get chipped away at, one lemonade stand and one family's story at a time.

We're grateful to everyone who pulled up to a stand, grabbed a cup of lemonade, and chose to be part of something bigger than a transaction. We're grateful to our staff across all three locations who ran the stands, handled the heat, and kept showing up. And we're especially grateful to Bryan for trusting us with his family's story so it could turn into something that helps other families going through the same fight.

The $1,000 raised will be donated directly to Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation. If you missed the stands but still want to contribute, you can donate any time through their website: alexslemonade.org

Thank you, Kansas City. We'll see you at the next one.