Unite For The Cure » Schmid

Marshall and Schmid Families Blow Past $5,000 Goal

stronwi — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:09:37 +0000

What an amazing week for Unite For The Cure. We had two Uniters, the Marshall Family of California and the Schmid Family of Pennsylvania, blow well past their $5,000 individual goal to help propel collective Unite For The Cure donations over the $30,000 mark and nearly to the $40,000 mark — in one week!

The Marshall’s have raised over $8,500 through their “Micah’s March 2009″ event and the Schmid’s have raised over $8,000 from their “Spinning” and “Zane’s Run” events. Congratulations Marshall and Schmid Families for an amazing accomplishment and keep up the inspiring, motivating work Uniters!

The Schmid Family: Spin For Baby Zane

Victoria Strong — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:49:33 +0000

A good friend of the Schmid family, Megan Morseth, organized a wonderful event for them — and in another state to boot. Megan looked to her talents and created a fundraiser around something she already loves doing. She describes it best:

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!

Incredible!!!

The Schmid Family: First Annual Zane’s Run

Victoria Strong — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:00:06 +0000

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.”

The Schmid Family: Zane’s Walk/Run and CBS3 News Segment

stronwi — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 22:00:26 +0000

What a touching segment on CBS3 Philadelphia featuring the Schmids, Uniter family from Pennsylvania. The Schmids are hosting the First Annual Zane’s Walk/Run on September 20, 2009.

Click here to see the news segment…

Click here or on the article below to read the article…

Way to go Schmid family!!!

Keith, Hillary, and Avery Schmid, uniting for the cure!

stronwi — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:00:56 +0000

Please welcome Keith, Hillary, and Avery Schmid of Pennsylvania who have decided to Unite For The Cure in direct support of the promising SMA stem cell program led by Dr. Keirstead in California.

Why are the Schmids uniting for the cure?

Keith and Hillary Schmid were blessed with twin girls, Avery (pictured on the right in the picture) and Zane (pictured on the left in the picture), in January 2009. They were overjoyed! When the girls were about one month old, they noticed Zane was not moving her limbs and head as much as Avery. Zane was diagnosed with SMA Type I on February 19, 2009 just 6 weeks of age. As Zane grew older, the disease progressed. She lost more muscle control, had low tone throughout her body, and then lost the ability to swallow. She had to be fed through a G-tube that was surgically placed into her stomach. After a 27 day hospitalization in the PICU, Zane passed away peacefully in her parents’ arms on June 18, 2009. She was 5 months, 16 days, 1 hour, and 3 minutes old…TOO YOUNG! She was a beautiful baby girl with big brown eyes and a magnetic personality. Before Zane’s diagnosis, the Schmid’s had never heard of SMA. Now, with their families and their community, they are determined to bring awareness to this horrific disease and to be a part of the SMA Community that is striving and praying for THE CURE. They created the website SweetBabyZane.com originally to keep people informed of Zane’s progress and daily routines. Now, the website serves as a source of information about SMA and of upcoming fundraising events in Zane’s memory. Keith and Hillary do not want other families to experience the pain they have felt of losing a child to SMA, therefore, they are members of Unite For The Cure.

We are thrilled to have Schmids part of Unite For The Cure!