Stafford Girl is the 2025 Ambassador for the Anthem LemonAid Pediatric Cancer Fundraiser
Ava Lester is undergoing treatment at Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU & is helping to raise funds for cancer care.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR
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Tomorrow in Stafford, 11-year-old Ava Lester is hosting a special lemonade stand.
Not only is it part of her birthday celebration, but it’s the Fredericksburg area’s first Anthem LemonAid stand—a fundraiser for kids like Ava who are being treated for pediatric cancer at Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU.
Ava is the 2025 LemonAid ambassador and is responsible for bringing the fundraiser to the Fredericksburg area. She’s been receiving treatment for leukemia at CHoR since March of 2024.
LemonAid started in the early 2000s as a grassroots effort—local lemonade stands set up to raise money for hematology and oncology services at CHoR. Now, according to a press release, it’s a major regional campaign, on track to surpass $2 million raised for childhood cancer care, including a record-breaking $239,000 in 2024 alone.
This weekend, LemonAid participants will set up lemonade stands at their homes, businesses, neighborhood pools, and other locations, and 100% of the funds they raise—either at their stands or through donations in advance—will go towards cancer care.
“We are hoping to raise $500 here from my lemonade stand, and at least $1 million for the actual cause [across the region],” Ava told the Advance this week. “We already have $300.”
Ava’s mom, Rachel Lester, reminded her of a $50 donation that just came in from her uncle.
“Oh yay! So we only need $150 more!”
Ava is a child who’s always loved people, especially making them happy, so having to stay away from her peers and extended family to protect her immune system during four rounds of chemotherapy has possibly been the hardest part of the disaese for her.
But at the Children’s Tower at CHoR, where she’s spent almost three of the last 12 months, Ava’s found a community of peers and caregivers where she can continue being the social butterfly she always was. So the opportunity to be this year’s LemonAid ambassador was a perfect fit—so perfect, in fact, that Ava plans to memoralize it when she turns 18 by getting a yellow ribbon tatooed on her wrist and a lemon on her ankle.
“I am very blessed to be the ambassador! It is the most fun,” Ava said. “I feel so lucky to help kids who are going through the exact same thing as me.”
“Ava loves to encourage people,” Rachel Lester said. “So to be given a role where she gets to encourage and meet new people is perfect for her.”
It’s also a joy for Ava to be able to support her care team at CHoR because of everything they’ve done to make her cancer journey bearable.
“I need tell you about my nurse practitioner, Tom,” she said with excitement. “So I have lumbar punctures and I go under propyphol for that. So they put a bandage on my back and I love writing little jokes on it.”
When her hair was starting to fall out, Tom joked with her about his own balding head.
“So I wrote a note on the bandage— ‘Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m going bald and so are you,’” Ava said.
In response and in solidarity, Tom shaved his head completely. Ava made matching beanies for both of them to wear.
“CHoR makes this world feel as magical as it can for the kids,” Rachel said in an interview for an article posted to the LemonAid website. “The team is always looking for ways to encourage and support to make the environment as child-like as possible.”
Ava’s invited her neighbors and family to Sunday’s lemonade stand, which is also doubling as her Hawaii-themed birthday party. After the buildup to the fundraiser, which involved four or five public events in her role as ambassador, she’ll have a bit of downtime before she starts getting ready to return to Fredericksburg Christian School in August.
But knowing Ava, she’ll be looking for the next opportunity to help out or give back.
“Ava always says ‘yes’ to everything,” Rachel Lester said with a laugh. “She’ll take any opportunity that is given to her. Sometimes we’ll try to talk her out of it, and she says ‘Come hell or high water, I’m doing it.’ That’s one of her sayings.”
Her other saying is, “You’re not going through it, you’re getting it all over with.”
“Yeah, so every kid with cancer that needs medicine—they’re not ‘going through it,’ they’re ‘getting it all over with,’” Ava said.
You can donate to Ava’s Anthem LemonAid fundraiser here.
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Where and when is the stand in Stafford?