Link: http://www.lakeelmoleader.com/articles/index.cfm?id=7880&section=Community

Lemonade legacy

Abby Lindekugel Lake Elmo Leader
Published Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Seven-year-old Kyle Tierney died March 27, but his legacy lives on.

Diagnosed at the age of 2 with a type of cancer called ependymoma, Kyle passed with his family, according to the family blog, www.kyletierney.com.

One of his last wishes when he was alive was to have a lemonade stand, which his family provided him with last summer. Kyle told his cousin Ann about his wish, who in turn told her employer, Ed Gorman.

Long-time family friend Ed Gorman, who owns Gorman’s Restaurant in Lake Elmo, offered the family prime lemonade stand real estate at Gorman’s, even donating the lemonade and supplies.

This year, the family is doing it again, in memory of Kyle, Saturday, Aug. 9.

Although it rained last year, and the stand was moved inside the restaurant, it is safe to say that Kyle’s lemonade stand must have been one of the most profitable in the history of Lake Elmo. Rick Tierney, Kyle’s father, estimated they raised $3,000 at the stand.

Proceeds from the lemonade stand went to toys for children in Children’s Hospital’s oncology unit. Kyle is described by many, in comments on the family blog, as a caring young man who was always looking to make others happy. Kyle made it clear that he wanted to help other children, something his family is continuing as well.

“It’s more to allow the hospital to buy new things,” said Tierney. He continued from personal experience, “You are there so long and the kids get sick of the same stuff. Then, you go back in a couple of months and it’s the same stuff. It’s nice for the hospital to have new things.”

Gorman was interested in helping the young man achieve his dream of helping others.

“We’ve known the family and we’ve known their struggles. When Kyle’s tumor came back the last time, they knew it was going to be bad, and they asked him what he wanted to do,” Gorman said. “He said he wanted to have a lemonade stand and a garage sale. Where you or I would want to go to Disneyland or Las Vegas, he just wanted simple things.”

Kyle poured lemonade with a smile for two hours last Aug. 18.

“It will be a lot different this year, because he was the one that sat out there and took money and asked if people wanted lemonade,” said Tierney.

This year, his younger brother Ryan will do the pouring.

“In talking to the family recently, we told them that if they wanted to do the lemonade stand, we would provide that on an annual basis,” Gorman said.

The family wrote on the blog, “This was Kyle’s dream for those kids and we hope to continue it for a long time.”

Proceeds will again go to sick children at Children’s Hospital.

The family still appeared in the planning stages of the stand earlier this week. No time was listed for the event, but it will be held Saturday, Aug. 9, at Gorman’s Restaurant off of Highway 5 in Lake Elmo, 11011 Stillwater Blvd. N.

Kyle’s 2nd Annual Lemonade Stand

In Honor of the Lemonade Stand Kyle Tierney started last
year, his family will be serving Lemonade at Gorman’s Restaurant
in Lake Elmo. The proceeds will go towards buying toys for the
kids at Children’s Hospital in St. Paul. This was Kyle’s dream for
those kids and we hope to continue it for a long time. Hope to see
you there.

Saturday August 9th, 2008 10am – 2pm
Hosted by:
Gorman’s Restaurant
11011 Stillwater Blvd.
Lake Elmo, MN 55042

Map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=11011+Stillwater+Blvd+N+Lake+Elmo,+MN+55042&sll=45.001337,-92.882302&sspn=0.003725,0.015439&ie=UTF8&ll=45.00139,-92.878826&spn=0.00745,0.022724&z=16&iwloc=addr

Just a quick FYI.  The Gorman’s are hosting Kyle’s Lemonade Stand again this year on August 9th at their restaurant ( map ) in Lake Elmo.  The new lemonade pourer will be Ryan.  Sure hope he has steady hand.  The proceeds will go towards buying toys for the sick kids at Children’s Hospital.  This was Kyle’s dream for those kids and we hope to continue it for a long time.  Hope to see you there.

We very much missed our superstar at the Relay on Friday night.  Today is four months since he left us.  The Relay just wasn’t the same without him.  His Mom did a very good job putting together all the details to make the Relay a very successful event for our team raising over $3,000 for cancer.  Thanks to all who played a part. 

 

The Tierney’s are doing well.  They are busy planning a memorial garden for their front yard – it will be Kyle’s garden.  His headstone was set at the cemetery this week.  It turned out very awesome with his angel drawing on it.

 

Oh and by the way, Kris is still very, very pregnant.

Today was the Minnesota Ride for Kids.  It is a motorcycle ride that leaves Century College in White Bear Lake and rides up towards Scandia and then back.  There were 163 motorcyclists participating in this year’s ride.  It was awesome to see so many bikes – many of them with more than one rider.   Kyle watched these motorcycles last year.  He watched them go and then come back. It was motorcycle after motorcycle.  There were so many.  He just couldn’t believe it.   I truly believe he was there watching today again in awe of the number of bikes. 

 

This ride is a fund raiser for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation.  Their purpose is to find the cause and cure for childhood tumors – like the one Kyle had.  Kyle’s oncologist, Dr Mortel, shared some interesting statistics.  He indicated that brain tumors have become one of the highest causes of death in children even higher than leukemia – just short of accidents.  The money raised in these events is going to help slow down the death rate caused by brain tumors and cancer.  They are making such progress in their research that hopefully within the next year or so, the will have more protocols for Kyle’s type of tumor.

 

Thank you for all who participated in today’s event

It is 3 months today that our little hero left us.  He continues to inspire us each and every day.  Thoughts of his strength through his journey with his tumor will never cease to amaze each of us.  We miss him every day and will always miss him.

 

Rick, Kris and Ryan continue to show their strength in restructuring their lives.  Rick is back into the routine of work and, I think, he is happy being there.  Kris is very, very pregnant.  She’s feeling good.  The doctor thinks this baby might arrive a little sooner than initially expected – possibly the middle of October.  We’ll see.  Those little ones do have a mind of their own.  They are going to keep us guessing as to whether Ryan will have a brother or a sister.  Makes choosing names a little more difficult for Ryan.  He likes the movie “Cars”.  So he has decided that a boy should be named “Lightning McQueen” and a girl should be “Sally” - both characters from the movie.  Sally might be OK but Lightning? 

 

Ryan is doing well.  He and his Mom are in New Jersey with Grandma Pat and Grandpa Bill visiting Aunt Katie, Uncle Brian and Cousin Brian.  They left on the 20^th, and will be back on Sunday.  Lots of sights to see.  They did get to Hershey PA to do a little sampling.

 

One of their new projects is to construct a memorial garden in their front yard in Kyle’s memory.  They began preliminary work on it last weekend.  It will be awesome to sit there and think about Kyle.   

 

They are working together as a family to help make the fundraisers they are involved in a success.  Aside from the ones listed on this site, it looks as though we are going to have “Kyle’s Lemonade stand” again.  The Gormans want to host this event again.  We are looking at a date in August.  Will post further information as it becomes available. 

Dear Friends and Family, 

This summer our family is again involved in two events focused on raising money for cancer research. These events are a way for our family to honor Kyle’s battle against cancer. We would love to have our friends and family join us for these important events. 

July 20, 2008: Minnesota Ride for Kids, supports the efforts of the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation (PBTF) to find the cause and cure of childhood brain tumors.

The Minnesota event takes place at Century College. The 2007 event raised over $73,000. Last year was the first time we attended and met a lot of other kids and families fighting Brain Tumors. Kyle’s picture is on this year’s brochure for the Minnesota Ride. Last year there was over 400 motorcyclists that took a scenic ride through Washington County and back with a police-escort (no stopping). There is lunch and a ‘Celebration of Life’ ceremony after the ride that is very inspiring. http://www.pbtfus.org/rideforkids/ We are planning on going and you are welcome to come join us. Please encourage any motorcyclists you know to participate. 

July 25, 2008: American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life in White Bear Lake.

This will be our 5^th year participating and each year we have more friends and family join us. The relay begins at approximately 7:00 with a survivors lap.  

This year’s relay will be the most difficult for us, without our “SUPER HERO” here for us to cheer on. I believe he will still be with us in our hearts inspiring us to fight for everyone that still battles cancer.  

We hope you can join us or even become a team member. Team members collect donations and sell luminaries for a $10.00 donation. Each luminary bag is to honor a cancer survivor or in memory of someone who has died from cancer. These luminaries are lined up on the track. The lighting of the luminaries will begin at dusk, around 9:30-10:00. 

Our team this year is Kyle’s Klan  Please make a donation to one of our team members or join our team. 

We invite you to support and participate in either of these events with us.  

Donations to the American Cancer Society can be made online, or mail a donation for either organization to Kyle Tierney, PO Box 9366, North St. Paul, MN 55109 at least one week prior to the event.  

Thank you, 

Rick, Kris and Ryan Tierney

Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.

Just a short update to say –   Today is the two month anniversary of Kyle’s becoming an angel.  We are still missing him every minute of every day.  It is totally amazing what will trigger a memory.  But we are so glad to have those memories.  Tomorrow will mark the five year anniversary of the day Kyle got diagnosed with his brain tumor.  And the long journey he traveled with his family began.    Everybody is doing OK.  Rick, Kris and Ryan are getting on with their lives.  It is a struggle that they seem to be handling – one day at a time.

It has been 3 weeks since Kyle left us.  We all miss him terribly.   Rick and Kris are doing amazingly well.  Kris is finding her new routine.  Her time was mostly devoted to Kyle and his needs, therapy and doctor visits.  With that behind her, she is able to become more active with Ryan and his school and activities.  Rick has gone back to work after being off for many weeks.  His coworkers are absolutely wonderful - soooo supportive.   It is very hard going on with life.  Nothing can make it easier but time and knowing that Kyle is free from the discomforts of the tumor.  Ryan is doing fine.  He is going to school – took skating classes and is playing soccer.  He is having a bit of trouble understanding just what happened but so are we all. 

 

Rick, Kris and Ryan have some very good news they would like to share – come next fall they will add to their family.  Another little Tierney is on the way – due October 28^th.  This is about the best news we could hope for right now and everybody is very excited.  Kyle new about this and was so excited – I do think he will be watching out for this little person.  He was helping Mom and Dad pick out names – but we don’t know what they chose, we have to wait until baby comes.

 

Rick and Kris are going to become active in fundraisers to help advance research to fight childhood cancers.  They would love to help keep what they experienced with Kyle from happening to other families.  We will periodically update this website with news about both the fundraisers and about how the Tierney’s are doing.

 

I want to add another very sincere thank you to everybody who has supported them through this journey they were on.  Thank you to family, friends, and neighbors.  The love and caring that has been shown to Rick, Kris, Ryan and Kyle has been unbelievable.  The support from both boys schools, teachers, aides and parents of the boy’s friends was awesome.  Kyle was made to feel so welcome wherever he went.  He wanted to be one of the guys, and they let him be just that. 

And thank you all for the cards and donations to Kyle’s Memorial fund.  It is great to be able to sit down and read them.  They are all so meaningful. 

Lake Elmo Leader Link

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