Each year for one Saturday near the beginning of June, community members can find a lemonade stand at Trappers Glen Park on Chenango Drive in south Jefferson County. For any donation amount, visitors can enjoy a cold lemonade in the hot sun.
Speaking to a man battling cancer who was on his second cup of lemonade that day, Todd Schultz said: “We ran out of breakfast burritos, but you can have whatever else you want.”
The man donated $2 – after dropping off a jar of pennies for his first cup of lemonade – and continued his conversation with Schultz, telling of his recent appointment and that he was waiting to hear from the doctor.
Todd is the father of 18-year-old Zack Schultz, who had leukemia at age 10. For three-and-a-half years, the Schultz family spent most of their time in the hospital until Zack was finally declared cancer free in January of 2020.
“It was the hardest thing we’ve ever been through (and) it’s not even the cancer,” said Kim Schultz, Zack’s mother. “It’s the treatment — seeing what they have to go through for treatment was really hard.”
For Zack, the toughest part was seeing the impact his diagnosis had on his family.
“I genuinely think it affected everybody else around me more than it affected me,” Zack said. “I’m very (tuned-in) with my body now, especially after going through that, but as for my family, they don’t know what’s going on unless I tell them … I know my family has anxiety (about my health) now.”
Todd said they worry even if Zack gets a bruise or has sore muscles – and that heightened worry about health has trickled down to the entire family.
“Everything you feel in your body, it amplifies,” said Jordan Schultz, one of Zack’s four siblings. “It’s like, everything that’s wrong is cancer.”
Since 2018, the Schultz family has walked down the street to Trappers Glen Park to set up their Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, which is a charity that fundraises for childhood cancer research. The family has named their stand Zack Attack.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand was established in 2009, which would have been the ninth birthday of the founder, Alex Scott. Scott was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer, just before she turned 1. Before her death in 2004, Scott raised $1 million with her lemonade stands.
Today, the foundation has raised more than $300 million and has funded over 1,500 research projects, according to its website, alexslemonade.org.
The Schultz family has raised over $10,000 for pediatric cancer research with their lemonade stands, with a vision to cure childhood cancer. With this year’s fundraiser, the Schultz’s hope to raise $2,500.
“This foundation is a really big part of our life and we do whatever we can, every year, to try and raise money for children fighting cancer and we know that the research that they’re doing, especially for leukemia, is working,” Kim said.
This year, the Schultz family set up their lemonade stand on June 7. As of June 10, they had raised $675. Donations will be accepted through the end of June on their website.
Kim pointed to the duration of Zack’s treatment – roughly three and a half years – compared to the duration today, which has since been lowered to around two years for childhood leukemia, according to American Cancer Society.
The family hopes to continue running the lemonade stand for years to come. It is now multigenerational, with grandchildren now pitching in on the efforts.
“We’ll continue to approach it like we have the whole time,” Todd said. “With a sense of humor, positivity and gratitude – and just fun. We have a great time doing this. We hope to expand it.”
A quote that has kept his family strong throughout Zack’s cancer journey comes from the 2006 film, “Rocky Balboa”:
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done.”