When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, as the old adage goes. For some 1,800 employees of Insurance Auto Auctions Inc., lemonade is part of their fight against childhood cancer.

IAA announced this week that it has raised $142,084 for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, to help raise awareness and funds in the battle against childhood cancer.

“Over 1,800 of our IAA employees came together in this effort by selling lemonade onsite during auction sale days and helped IAA surpass our fundraising goal by over 40 percent, said Tom O’Brien, chief executive officer at IAA. “I am proud to lead this team and to continue to provide support for Alex’s Lemonade Stand in the fight against childhood cancer.”

Of IAA’s 160 North American branches, 142 branches located across the nation took part in the fundraising, as part of the Alex’s Lemonade Stand’s ninth annual National Lemonade Days.

The major fundraising initiative of Alex’s Lemonade Stand, National Lemonade Days has the goal of raising $1 million for childhood cancer research over the course of three days each June.

Families affected by childhood cancer attended auctions at IAA’s Anaheim and Philadelphia branches, the company said, to help create awareness for the fund generation efforts.

Dealers, insurance companies and other donors provided cars to help support the cause, in addition to the cash donations received. IAA reported that last year it raised $10,000 in support of National Lemonade Days, with IAA buyers and providers contributing to the effort.

“It was quite an honor to partner with IAA in support of its Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation fundraising efforts and to help generate awareness for pediatric cancer research,” said Joanna Moore, chief claims officer with Mercury Insurance Group, which donated funds generated from auctioning a 2012 Kia Optima SX at an IAA event.

“We share IAA’s commitment to give back to the communities we serve to help those in need, and continue to look for ways to support worthy causes and organizations such as Alex’s Lemonade Stand,” Moore said.

“Support from organizations such as IAA is critical to advancing our efforts in this important crusade against childhood cancer,” said Liz Scott, Alex’s mom and co-executive director of ALSF. “We are so pleased to have IAA’s support for a second year in a row. Together, we are inspired to continue our mission to encourage and empower others to get involved and make a difference for children with cancer.”