Tag Archives: Schmid

Keith and Hillary are very close friends of my husband and I. Keith was Justin’s Best Man in his wedding and Justin was the Best Man in Keith and Hillary’s wedding. The loss of beautiful baby Zane hit us both hard. Having two little ones of our own, it seemed surreal. We really wanted to do something.

I am a Spinning instructor in Carmel, Indiana and Justin suggested that I do a “Spin-a-Thon” to raise money for SMA research. We planned the two-hour event at Carmel Total Fitness. Similar to a Walk-a-Thon, we asked participants to try and raise money on their own by getting sponsorships for their ride. We also asked local companies to donate water, bananas and bagels.

We only had nine riders…but they were an extraordinary bunch! One neighbor’s son, Mitchell, baked cookies with his three brothers and held a cookie sale, donating every penny to the cause. Another neighbor’s son, Jon, collected money from students and teachers at his school. It was incredibly heartwarming to see both of them present me with Ziploc bags filled with coins and dollars. And goodness did it add up! The nine of us raised $1,322! In addition, a third neighbor requested sponsorship by the company for whom he works…and it looks as if we’ll be getting another $1,000 soon! Thank you to our friend, Todd! My neighbors and friends ROCK for their incredible support!

Congratulations Schmid Family of Pennsylvania! We are so inspired by your wonderful event in honor and in memory of your darling baby Zane. It was clearly a big success, surpassing your expectations, and we are so thrilled!

Here is what Hillary wrote about the day on their website Sweet Baby Zane:

Wonderful. Everything was wonderful; the weather, the crowd, and the event itself went very smoothly. God gave us a sunny 79 degree day with a light breeze and very few clouds in the sky. We had 410 people participate in the walk/ run. Keith and I were overwhelmed with the amount of support from our families, friends, the community, and total strangers. We can’t wait until the day we tell Avery about Zane, her legacy, and the community that rallied in support of Fighting SMA.

We have a preliminary total of $12,068…absolutely fantastic! We are waiting on a final tally of the online registration and online donations from FSMA, so it will be more than that. This is an amazing number for a first time event. We are elated! To be able to send all this money to Families of Spinal Muscular Atrophy and to the SMA stem cell program lead by Dr. Hans Keirstead at UC Irvine is thrilling.

I think the Schmid’s included a very fitting Mark Twain quote to describe their  truly uplifting event: “Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.”