By Charlie Young
Contributing writer
At the tender age of 7 or 8, Ava Musci and her mom, Gracelyn, were visiting friends where the kids there had a lemonade stand going. Ava helped out and was immediately hooked on the whole idea. “I saw one of her coworker’s daughters dancing around with a sign outside. I was like, ‘That was so much fun. I want to do that.’” Ava remembers begging her mom after that to set up a stand of their own outside their Liverpool home. “We started off with cupcakes and lemonade!”
Then Ava and her mom, whose family are active members of the linked parishes of Christ the King and Pope John XXIII, discovered Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation online. They watched the video about Alexandra Scott, who used a lemonade stand to start raising money to fight childhood cancer, a disease that eventually took Alex’s life at the age of 8. The foundation grew out of that effort and people like Ava continue the drive to fund research and a cure, one cool glass of lemonade at a time.
Ava Musci with her mom, Gracelyn, and their four-legged family members.
“I wouldn’t say I bragged about it, but I would say a lot about it to my friends,” Ava said about the stand’s growth. She also spread the word through teachers and parents of friends and classmates. Then came the campaign.
“We were doing flyers, 150 I think,” Gracelyn added. “We did the whole neighborhood, and social media.” One of Ava’s twin brothers had a friend whose mother worked in a local television newsroom. An interview and story followed and things shifted into high gear. Year in, year out, the Musci family makes it happen supported by neighbors, friends and more. The local Corvette club did a neighborhood drive-thru that attracted a crowd and helped fuel lemonade sales.
This fall Ava will start her Confirmation sacramental journey, a process that focuses significant time and energy on awareness of service to others. The connection between faith and the lemonade effort is not at all lost on Ava who, in short, truly gets it.
“I grew up with the whole premise of going to church was to be a good person … be kind to others, treat people the way you want to be treated, you know. To have your faith with you, to believe.”
She sees the direct link between faith and service to others. “I think that giving back to other people corresponds with having your faith and being like a saint.” After a deeply thoughtful pause, Ava added that “I don’t really know the exact words, what I’m trying to say.” While she may not have been able to articulate the feelings this effort conjures up inside her, she more than makes up for it in her energy, actions, infectious smile and truly heartfelt desire to help others who are facing the fight of their young lives. And she has attracted support from Wegmans, Walmart, Costco, the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department and more. Even one of the famous Baldwin brothers stopped by.
Despite the notoriety, Ava has kept her humble approach intact, and it has a lot to do with Jesus. “It’s like he’s setting a path, and I’m just trying to follow it to the right place.”
Lemonade-stand season is over but the effort continues. Her first-year goal was $1,000 and it’s grown each year, with sales of almost $2,700 this year. If you would like to help Ava continue on the path to make a huge dent in childhood cancer, you can still contribute. Visit alexslemonade.org/mypage/3403286 to contribute.
