• by Les Luchter , July 25, 2023

“Can looking ridiculous help fight childhood cancer?” asks Northwestern Mutual in a video on its social media platforms. “The lemon top challenge makes sure of it.”

Yes, balance a lemon on your head during the next two weeks and the insurance company will donate $10 toward childhood cancer research.

Northwestern Mutual will also donate $10 for up to 9,999 other lemon balancers -- or $100,000 total -- who post a photo or video of the lemon atop their (or someone else’s) head on social media, while tagging #LemonTopChallenge, @northwesternmutual and @alexslemonade.

The latter handle represents Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, to which the Northwestern Mutual Foundation’s Childhood Cancer Program has already donated more than $30 million over the past decade.

Overall, Northwestern Mutual has donated more than $50 million to the cause since 2012.

The challenge runs through Aug. 6.

Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra "Alex" Scott, a cancer victim who wanted to raise money to find a cure. By the time she passed away at age 8 in 2004, she had helped raise $1 million.

Northwestern’s $30 million represents 12% of the $250 million raised by Alex’s to date.

Alex’s parents, Liz and Jay Scott, are co-executive directors of the Foundation.

In other lemonade stand cancer news, more than 4,700 people have set up “Lemonade Stand in July” fundraisers via a dedicated St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital Facebook group.

St. Jude notes that its overall childhood cancer survival rate has risen from 20% when it opened in 1962 to to more than 80% today.

Earlier this month, the Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that approximately 15,000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer each year in the U.S. “Although pediatric cancer mortality has decreased over the past 40 years,” the authors wrote, “cancer is still the leading disease-related cause of death among children and adolescents aged 1 to 19 years.”