SHADE Foundation

Shonda Schilling Visits Portsmouth: Hosts Local Boston Marathon Auction For Melanoma Foundation

Monday, March 19th, 2007 at 2:49 pm · Blog

By Thomas R. Kressler, Democrat Staff Writer

In 2005, Shonda Schilling, wife of Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, laced up her run­ning shoes and hit the streets of Beantown for the Boston Marathon.

Following a suc­cess­ful bout with malig­nant melanoma, run­ning the gru­el­ing race was a way to reclaim her life, Schilling said dur­ing Saturday’s fundraiser at The Ballroom at the Rockingham, in Portsmouth.

“Running a marathon was like tak­ing my life back,” Schilling said. “I didn’t have to be scared of the out­doors anymore.”

Schilling’s diag­no­sis was in 2001, and a year later she founded the SHADE Foundation, a non­profit ded­i­cated to rais­ing aware­ness of issues related to skin can­cer. Since 2005, run­ning the Boston Marathon has been a way to raise money for the orga­ni­za­tion, which also spon­sors a nation­wide poster con­test in schools, among other projects.

Saturday’s event at the down­town hot spot was a fundraiser for three local marathon run­ners, who are among 15 SHADE is spon­sor­ing and was St. Patrick’s Day themed. Green Red Sox hats and jer­seys abounded while about 75 party goers ate food donated by Shaw’s, sipped wine and bid on numer­ous items in a silent and live auc­tion, includ­ing auto­graphed Red Sox memorabilia.

The goal was to raise $10,000 for the team, and ulti­mately $80,0000 by April 16, the day of the 26.2-mile marathon.

Schilling’s brother, Michael Brewer, of Dover, was one of the three run­ners spon­sor­ing the event. Like Schilling, this will be his third year run­ning with the team.

“I keep say­ing the last, but she (Schilling) keeps say­ing no,” Brewer joked. “I don’t look for­ward to the training.”

For less expe­ri­enced run­ners, train­ing typ­i­cally begins four months before the marathon. The two other local run­ners are Luke and Rachel Martin, of South Berwick, Maine, who are brother and sister-in-law.

“It (SHADE) was really started because there wasn’t any­thing else out there,” Schilling said. “So many peo­ple lost loved ones and a lot of peo­ple really didn’t know what it was. I felt like I had an obligation.”

The Schillings are involved in a num­ber of char­i­ta­ble pur­suits, among them Curt Schilling’s part­ner­ship with the ALS Foundation. But run­ning the marathon is a way Shonda can raise money for SHADE with­out depend­ing on Curt. It also fur­thers the goal of edu­cat­ing chil­dren and par­ents about skin health, which she says is often ignored.

“We teach kids how to brush their teeth but we don’t teach them how to take care of their skin,” Schilling said.

Heidi and Tripp Johnson, neigh­bors of the Schillings in Medfield, Mass., made the trip Saturday night to sup­port the SHADE Foundation. Having known the Schillings for more than two years, their con­nec­tion runs deep.

The Johnsons’ son William, 7, suf­fers from Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a com­pletely debil­i­tat­ing dis­ease sim­i­lar to ALS. Schilling noticed William’s dis­abil­ity when the two fam­i­lies ran into each other at a neigh­bor­hood base­ball field. In Oct. 2005, Schilling was instru­men­tal in get­ting the Johnsons on an episode of Extreme Makeover, where their old farm­house was trans­formed into a mansion.

In addi­tion, Heidi Johnson has bat­tled melanoma twice, first in1998 and again 2001, lead­ing her to sup­port the SHADE Foundation when­ever possible.

“The power of the Schilling fam­ily goes far,” Heidi Johnson said. “They take all their energy and put it to good use. It’s amazing.”

As a health and phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion teacher at Dover Middle School, George Liset says he is aware of the lack of skin can­cer aware­ness and a sup­porter of the SHADE Foundation. And as a life­long Red Sox fan, he was eye­ing any num­ber of auto­graphed mem­o­ra­bilia Saturday night, includ­ing a signed Curt Schilling jer­sey and a signed issue of Sports Illustrated declar­ing the Red Sox “Sportsmen of the Year” fol­low­ing their 2004 World Series win.

“I was one of those peo­ple who when they won the World Series I went to my grand­par­ents’ grave,” Liset said. “I’ve got a (Carlton) Fisk auto­graph, a (Ted) Williams auto­graph, and a (Carl) Yastrzemski auto­graph, and it’s my goal to get a Schilling auto­graph tonight. I might have to break the bank to do it.”

Plus, any money he bids goes to a good cause.

“It’s great when they give some­thing back to the com­mu­nity,” Liset said. “Any chance to sup­port a great orga­ni­za­tion, I like to be able to do that.”

Download 2007 Boston Marathon Auction (PDF)