Eudora youngster Haleigh Pippert, 10, hands over a cup of lemonade to Lawrence resident Heather Jorgensen, as Pippert and her grandmother Judi O'Grady, fix cups of lemonade for donations to raise money for cancer research last year. Lemonade stands will be set up in front of Lawrence Hy-Vee stores Friday and Saturday as part of a national fundraiser.

About two dozen volunteers – a few of them children with cancer – will operate two Lawrence lemonade stands Friday and Saturday to raise money for cancer research.

“To see these kids out there fighting for each other kind of just spurs you on to do a little bit more,” said Judi O’Grady, of Eudora, whose daughter Brooke died from cancer in 2001 at age 15.

Volunteers will work from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days at each Hy-Vee store location, 3504 Clinton Parkway and 4000 W. Sixth St., as part of the nationwide Alex’s Lemonade Stands for Pediatric Cancer Research. Volunteers will also collect money at Kansas City area Hy-Vee stores.

One year ago, volunteers in Lawrence raised $2,000, and they hope to at least double that total this year, O’Grady said. They have partnered with another corporate sponsor, Kohl’s department store, which will provide volunteers and donations.

“We just keep doing this because it’s kind of become a going thing, and we get a lot of response from it,” said O’Grady, who is also a lobbyist for the cause.

Nationally, the charity raised more than $10 million in 2006. The foundation was started seven years ago in Philadelphia by Alex Scott, a young cancer patient, who died in 2004.

O’Grady said that 93 cents of every dollar donated funds research grants. Several Lawrence children who have survived forms of pediatric cancer are scheduled to make appearances to help sell lemonade.

Donations can also be made online at www.firstgiving.com/kclemonadestands.