SHADE Foundation

Register now for the 2010 SunWise with SHADE Poster Contest.  We have already started receiv­ing posters. Congratulations Jenkins Creek ES in Covington, WA; they were the first school to sub­mit posters!  We have also received posters from MI and VA — way to go early birds!  Get reg­is­tered now and send in those posters!

View the Poster Contest in the news.

Don’t for­get to apply sun­screen to your kids before they leave for school.  Even though the temps may drop this time of year, the UVA and UVB rays can still burn.  Check the UV Index for your area!

Be A Friend of SHADE on Facebook!

Hard Work And Commitment To Community Service Has Resulted In The Following For Shonda Schilling

BOSTON, Mass. (Ivanhoe Newswire) — She’s the wife of a Major League Baseball pitcher, but what Shonda Schilling learned is that fame and for­tune can­not guar­an­tee good health. Now she’s on a cru­sade to strike out melanoma.

Major league pitcher Curt Schilling and his wife Shonda feel blessed for the life they lead but Shonda learned how quickly it can all change after being diag­nosed with stage two, malig­nant melanoma.

“I didn’t real­ize that this was seri­ous and that it takes peo­ples’ lives. So that brought me to my knees,” Shonda told Ivanhoe.

The harsh real­ity prompted the Schillings to cre­ate the Shade Foundation.

“We need peo­ple to under­stand it is a dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ment now, our ozone layer is gone and we all really need to respect what Mother Nature is say­ing to us,” Shonda said.

At 18 Kelly, wife of Red Sox player Dustin Pedroia heard Mother Nature loud and clear. That’s when she dis­cov­ered melanoma on her leg. She later turned to the Shade Foundation for support.

“Shonda inspires me because she is out there talk­ing to kids telling every­one how dan­ger­ous this really is,” Kelly said.

In addi­tion to wear­ing sun block with UVA and UVB pro­tec­tion the foun­da­tion stresses self-body exams. Experts say once a month, do a full body exam. Start with your head, ears and scalp. Make sure to lift your arms and care­fully exam­ine your back and legs since they are most prone to skin can­cer, and check in between fin­gers and toes.

“Something as sim­ple as doing and exam on your body may save your life,” Shonda said.

If you would like more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact: http://www.shadefoundation.org

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BOXBOROUGH, Massachusetts — Acton res­i­dent Elias Thomas, of the Sanford-Springvale RotaryClub, and his wife, Jane, recently attended the annual con­fer­ence for Rotary District 7910 and served as the offi­cial rep­re­sen­ta­tives for Rotary International President Wilf Wilkinson and his wife, Joan.

Thomas is a Past District Governor within the Rotary organization.

The con­fer­ence took place from May 2 through 4 at the Holiday Inn in Boxborough, Massachusetts. As many as 450 Rotarians and guests attended.

On Saturday, May 3, Thomas had the plea­sure of rec­og­niz­ing the efforts of Shonda Schilling, wife of Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, in her estab­lish­ing of The Shade Foundation.

Several years ago, Shonda Schilling was diag­nosed with stage-2 melanoma and after a num­ber of inva­sive surg­eries, she enjoys being cancer-free. Shortly after her diag­no­sis, Shonda estab­lished The Shade Foundation for the pur­pose of rais­ing aware­ness regard­ing melanoma, as well as rais­ing funds to aid in research of this dis­ease and ways to com­bat it.

The Rotary Foundation rec­og­nizes the con­tri­bu­tions of Rotarians and non-Rotarians, alike, not only for finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions, but also for con­tri­bu­tions to the bet­ter­ment of soci­ety. District 7910 con­tributed funds to The Rotary Foundation, in order to rec­og­nize Shonda Schilling for her efforts on behalf of human­ity in the fight against melanoma.

Thomas had the honor of pre­sent­ing Shonda with a Paul Harris Fellow Medallion and pin at a din­ner in Boxborough that Saturday evening.

Today at the 68^th Annual Society for Investigative Dermatology Meeting, a poster focus­ing on DermTech’s novel tech­nol­ogy for deter­min­ing the pres­ence of melanoma via non-invasive tape strip­ping, received the Plenary Poster Prize for Clinical Research. The poster was selected for its excel­lence with regard to novel or inno­v­a­tive sci­en­tific research as deter­mined and judged by the chairs of the SID Scientific Program Committee. The award and cash prize were spon­sored by Nature Publishing Group.

“We are delighted that Dr. William Wachsman and his col­leagues have been awarded the Nature Publishing Group top clin­i­cal research prize for their work using DermTech’s inno­v­a­tive EGIR tech­nol­ogy,” said George Schwartz, CEO, DermTech. “We believe that our method for detect­ing melanoma sim­ply and pain­lessly will make it many times more likely to be detected in the early stages when it has a much higher prob­a­bil­ity of being cured.”

The authors of the study sug­gested donat­ing the finan­cial award to three non-profit melanoma research orga­ni­za­tions for their leading-edge work in the early detec­tion of the dis­ease. DermTech agreed, com­mit­ted to match the amount and is pleased to be able to help sup­port the Richard David Kann Melanoma Foundation in Palm Beach, Florida, spear­headed by founder Debbie Schwarzberg, the Charlie Guild Melanoma Foundation in Richmond, California, led by founder Valerie Guild, and the Shade Foundation of America, in Scottsdale, Arizona, founded by Shonda Schilling, the wife of Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

The top com­mended abstract titled: “Differentiation of melanoma from dys­plas­tic nevi in sus­pi­cious pig­mented skin lesions by non-invasive tape strip­ping,” demon­strated that DermTech’s pro­pri­etary Epidermal Genetic Information Retrieval (EGIR) tech­nol­ogy suc­cess­fully har­vested RNA from the stra­tum corneum (‘skin’) and could iden­tify melanoma based on gene expres­sion pro­files. EGIR is a non-invasive nucleic acid retrieval tech­nol­ogy that makes use of a cus­tom adhe­sive film to sam­ple the upper lay­ers of the epi­der­mis. Sample pro­cess­ing results in the repro­ducible detec­tion of spe­cific bio­mark­ers extracted from the har­vested skin cells for use in gene expres­sion analy­sis. Expression pat­terns can be used to mon­i­tor the effects of actives on the epi­der­mis or to cre­ate “mol­e­c­u­lar pro­files” of tar­get diseases.

“This is ground-breaking tech­nol­ogy that could mark a clear improve­ment in the way melanoma is detected and treated,” said Harold Rabinovitz, M.D., Clinical Professor of Dermatology, University of Miami School of Medicine. “Because it is pain­less, easy to use and offers real hope to peo­ple whose melanoma might oth­er­wise go un-attended to, this method is ide­ally suited to become a rou­tine test per­formed in the dermatologist’s office.”

William Wachsman, M.D., Ph.D., was the lead author on the study. Dr. Wachsman is Associate Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and head of the Microarray Shared Resource at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. Additional authors and researchers who con­tributed sig­nif­i­cantly to the study were: Tissa Hata, M.D., of University of California, San Diego Dermatology Department, Nicholas Schork, Ph.D., Director of Research, Molecular and Experimental Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, Sherman Chang, Ph.D., direc­tor of Molecular Biology, DermTech, Boris Bastian, M.D., Department of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco and Harold Rabinovitz, M.D., a der­ma­tol­o­gist in Plantation, Florida.

About DermTech:

Headquartered in La Jolla, California, DermTech International (www.dermtech.com) spe­cial­izes in the devel­op­ment and val­i­da­tion of mol­e­c­u­lar tests using spec­i­mens derived fro m the skin. The company’s pro­pri­etary Epidermal Genetic Information Retrieval (EGIR) tech­nol­ogy is being stud­ied in the con­text of track­ing treat­ment effi­cacy for a vari­ety of der­ma­to­logic and other con­di­tions, includ­ing the effects of drugs on skin at the mol­e­c­u­lar level in advance of observ­able clin­i­cal results, and aid­ing in the diag­no­sis of dis­ease. DermTech International is actively pur­su­ing research using EGIR and its appli­ca­tions toward mol­e­c­u­lar diag­nos­tics and ther­a­nos­tics in the areas of melanoma, prostate can­cer and var­i­ous skin dis­or­der s, such as psoriasis.

Contacts:

DermTech
George Schwartz
CEO
858.450.4222
gschwartz@dermtech.com

For DermTech
Jennifer Larson
415.409.2729
jlarson@labfive.com

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Towson University Alumna Shonda Schilling was pre­sented The Deans Recognition Award on May 3^rd for her work with skin can­cer aware­ness and the SHADE Foundation. Each year, Towson Alumni are selected from one of seven col­leges within Towson University and are rec­og­nized for their out­stand­ing pro­fes­sional and/or phil­an­thropic accomplishments.

Bostonians to Get Shade, Sunscreen and Education to Fight Skin Cancer as Boston Becomes a Model SunWise Community

Boston, Mass. — On Earth Day, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson joined Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and SHADE Foundation of America founder Shonda Schilling to rec­og­nize Boston as a SunWise Community.

Mayor Menino pro­claimed April 22, “SunWise Day” in Boston and pledged to work with SHADE and EPA through­out the year to pro­vide shade, sun­screen, and a qual­ity SunWise edu­ca­tion to the city’s youth and families.

“Boston is lead­ing by exam­ple, and Mayor Menino’s SunWise City announce­ment only adds to the city’s green rep­u­ta­tion,” said EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson. “By plant­ing trees and edu­cat­ing the pub­lic about the dan­gers of sun expo­sure, Boston is show­ing its com­mit­ment to the health of its envi­ron­ment and residents.”

“Being SunWise is impor­tant since skin can­cer affects every­one, espe­cially in Boston where we have large youth and elderly pop­u­la­tions,” said Boston Mayor Menino, a can­cer sur­vivor. “That’s why the city has com­mit­ted to edu­cat­ing our chil­dren about pro­tect­ing them­selves from the sun and have begun our plans to plant 100,000 trees by 2020. In addi­tion to pro­vid­ing shade for city res­i­dents and vis­i­tors alike, these trees will help keep our city cooler dur­ing the sum­mer months, reduc­ing air con­di­tion­ing costs, and absorb­ing more car­bon dioxide.”

“I applaud the Mayor’s efforts,” said Shonda Schilling, founder of the SHADE Foundation of America. “Teaching sun safety to chil­dren and their fam­i­lies is cru­cial because nearly half of all new can­cers diag­nosed in the United States each year are skin can­cers. Skin can­cer can be pre­vented by tak­ing sim­ple pre­cau­tions like wear­ing sun­screen, a hat and sun­glasses, and seek­ing shade.”

Since over­ex­po­sure to UV radi­a­tion affects peo­ple of all racial and eth­nic groups in the form of skin can­cer, cataracts and other eye dam­age, pre­ma­ture aging and wrin­kling of the skin, and immune sys­tem sup­pres­sion, Boston’s sta­tus as a national leader in work to elim­i­nate racial and eth­nic dis­par­i­ties in health makes the city a per­fect fit for a SunWise Community. In 2004, Massachusetts had the 8^th high­est melanoma inci­dence rate in the coun­try; 25 per­cent higher than the national aver­age. This year, the American Cancer Society esti­mates that 62,480 U.S. men and women will be diag­nosed with melanoma, the dead­liest form of skin can­cer, and 1,810 of these cases are expected to occur in Massachusetts alone.

To help the city pro­mote sun safety, SHADE is donat­ing 100 trees, 10 shade struc­tures and sun­screen, and EPA’s SunWise Program is pro­vid­ing free edu­ca­tional activ­ity kits and train­ing to city edu­ca­tors and com­mu­nity workers.

In addi­tion to the procla­ma­tion, the Swingset Mamas were on hand to per­form their hit song “Sunscreen Dance,” trees donated by the SHADE Foundation were planted, skin can­cer pre­ven­tion infor­ma­tion and sun­screen were dis­trib­uted, posters sub­mit­ted to the annual Limit the Sun, Not the Fun national poster con­test spon­sored by SHADE, EPA and WeatherBug were on dis­play, and fun SunWise activ­i­ties were held for local children.

SHADE Foundation of America, founded by Shonda Schilling, is ded­i­cated to the erad­i­ca­tion of melanoma through the edu­ca­tion of chil­dren and the com­mu­nity in the pre­ven­tion and detec­tion of skin can­cer and the pro­mo­tion of sun safety.

SunWise is an envi­ron­men­tal and health edu­ca­tion pro­gram that teaches chil­dren and their care­givers how to pro­tect them­selves from over­ex­po­sure to the sun through the use of classroom-, school– and community-based com­po­nents. Through SunWise Communities, EPA works with state and local gov­ern­ments to incor­po­rate sup­port for sun-safe prac­tices at mul­ti­ple lev­els of the com­mu­nity. This year, SunWise is work­ing with the city of Boston, Cobb County, GA and the state of Washington to raise aware­ness about the need for sun pro­tec­tion in all regions of the country.

More infor­ma­tion:

• EPA SunWise Program (epa.gov/sunwise)
• SHADE Foundation: (www.shadefoundation.org)
• City of Boston: (www.cityofboston.gov)