Summer isn’t ready to let go just yet, and that was perfectly fine for Cos Cob Elementary School upcoming third-grade student Brady Zeller Monday.
The hot and humid afternoon made it perfect to cool down with some ice-cold lemonade from local business Green & Tonic and to also raise money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand—something that hits very close to home for the Zeller family.
“This is just great,” said Brian Zeller, Brady’s father. “Green & Tonic is a great local neighborhood business and they are bringing the community together for a rally good cause. With our son, Brady, having cancer, this really does hit home. Any time you bring local businesses and the local community together to raise awareness for a good cause, and also raise money, is a great thing.”
For several hours Monday afternoon at the Mill Pond Park, children and parents from Cos Cob Elementary School made signs, stood in front of a cash register with bright smiles, carefully poured lemonade, courtesy of Green & Tonic, and put together one amazing lemonade stand.
Amongst the nearly 50 children was Brady Zeller, and his excitement was clearly visible.
“This is good,” Brady Zeller said. “We are having a lemonade stand to help raise money for cancer. It’s good, very good, to have my friends here. People are making money for cancer and stuff, and it’s good.”
Brady Zeller has been diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare cancer that accounts for only one percent of pediatric cancers. Despite the low number, Ewing’s Sarcoma is actually the second most common bone cancer in children.
The tumor that needed to be removed immediately was found in Brady’s left tibia. In addition to the 10 months of chemotherapy he’s currently undergoing, Brady also had to have Salvage Lymph Node Dissection surgery.
“Only 20 years ago, the leg would most likely have to be amputated, but now they go into the leg, remove part of the bone and insert a bone and screw,” Brian Zeller said. “The new bone will actually grow as Brady grows, so we are hopeful that the quality of life for our son will be greater.”
With Brady going through this rough time in his young life, friends of the family got together and had the idea of putting together a lemonade stand to raise awareness and funds for pediatric cancers.
“It’s the first time that we’ve done this, and we really wanted to pull together the community,” said Lawton Carrescia, the head of the wellness committee at Cos Cob School. “I think that Cos Cob is really getting this great sense of community, and right before school started we wanted to get the kids together and get them really excited about this. They love doing lemonade stands and raising money for Alex’s Lemonade Stand, an initiative that they talk about in school.”
Carrescia then got in touch with Cai Pandolfino, owner of Green & Tonic and also mother of two Cos Cob students.
“I know that one of the teachers at Cos Cob School has been involved in supporting Alex’s Lemonade Stand in the past and we always asked how we could help,” Pandolfino said. “This year I reached out to a couple of mothers on the wellness committee at Cos Cob School and said that I think we should do this, with Brady in mind. A lot of people were more than willing to volunteer their time to help out.”
In addition to the refreshing lemonade from Green & Tonic, other businesses, like Dunkin Donuts, Baskin Robbins, Chicken Joe’s, Greenwich Cheese Company, Dream Spa, Sweaty Betty, Gravina and Starbucks all pitched in for a raffle.
“This is so great,” Carrescia said. “The whole Zeller family are good family friends of ours and they were so excited when I told them, especially Brady. We saw him last weekend and he was so excited to be here and to get people behind this. It’s great for Brady, because he hasn’t been able to go to school that much and it’s nice for him to see his friends.”
A plethora of people, young and old, gathered at the lemonade stand despite modest publicity. Green & Tonic donated lemonade and the tent, and the rest was word of mouth.
“We just started telling our friends about it and we all emailed our friends,” Carrescia said. “The PTA sent out a huge email blast to let our whole school community know about it. So far, we’ve had just an amazing turnout.”
According to its web site, Alex’s Lemonade Stand emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra Scott, who started the stand in 2000. Scott passed away in 2004, but her legacy continues through the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer.
Money donated goes to fund research for better treatments and cures for children with cancer.
“This year, especially because Brady is such a dear friend to so many of us and the Zellers are such an active family here in our community, it made a lot of sense for us to do this,” Pandolfino said. “It made it a very real thing for the kids. At Green & Tonic, we are uniquely suited to make lemonade, and healthy organic lemonade at that. So we thought, ‘What better place to be, right here in the middle of Cos Cob with an awesome school community and retail community?’ It made a lot of sense.”
The Zellers moved to Cos Cob a few years ago, and Brian Zeller says he’s “blown away” by how the community rallies in times of need.
“We knew we moved to a great community,” Brian Zeller said. “When something unfortunate like this happened to us, to see the way everybody rallied around that is really special. It hits home and it’s really great.”
While raising pediatric cancer awareness is important to the Zeller family, seeing Brady outside at the lemonade stand, smiling from ear to ear with his friends from Cos Cob Elementary School and playing together, is special.
With all the treatments while battling Ewing’s Sarcoma and time away from the school, the ability for Brady to be with his friends and act like a 6-year-old kid is absolutely precious, according to his father.
“You can look at Brady and it’s obvious that this really picks his spirits up and it’s nice to see,” Brian Zeller said. “It’s great for me to see. For him to see his classmates and everything is very touching. There’s no real way to say thank you to the people. He’s really been amazing through this whole thing. Brady’s been really positive, really upbeat, and really understands what’s going on and what he has. Our doctors, as well as my wife and I, have been really honest with him and he just puts his head down and does what he has to do.”
With all the excitement going around, Brady Zeller still had some top priorities to accomplish during the event.
“I’m good and feel fine,” Brady Zeller said. “I can’t wait to go to the cash register. I hope to make a lot of money. Maybe $500. That would be good. Or even $400. It’s already at $200, or something like that. We’re getting there.”
