By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Stars from Broadway, Hollywood and Nashville will all come together for a virtual fundraiser benefiting a nonprofit organization that helps families battling cancer and was inspired by a late Sea Isle City lifeguard.
The For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation hopes the event at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 25 will raise more than $300,000, said Marci Schankweiler, founder and chief executive officer of the organization.
“This is our largest fundraiser. We hope it’s our most successful one,” Schankweiler said in an interview Friday.
The event is free to the public. Registration is at www.lovefps.org.
For Pete’s Sake pays for cancer patients and their families to go on weeklong “respite” vacations that give them a break from the physical and emotional hardships of cancer. The March 25 event is a crucial part of the fundraising efforts that will allow the organization to continue with its mission.
Giving the event some Nashville flavor, country music stars Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley and Jon Pardi were recently added to the entertainment lineup for the fundraiser.
They join previously announced appearances by Broadway performers Mandy Gonzalez of “Hamilton,” Tony Award nominated actress Laura Osnes, stage veteran Hugh Panaro and PS22 Chorus of Staten Island.
Emceed by Julie Chen Moonves, the fundraiser will also feature appearances by Hollywood actresses Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, Fran Drescher and Maria Bello.
Bello, known for her movie roles and for playing Special Agent Jacqueline “Jack” Sloane on the TV series “NCIS,” has strong ties to Sea Isle, spending her summer vacations in the resort since she was 10. Her parents, Kathy and Joe Bello, have owned a house in the resort for years.
Schankweiler said Kathy Bello’s battle with cancer will be featured in a documentary airing in April on the For Pete’s Sake website at https://takeabreakfromcancer.org/.
Maria Bello’s aunt and uncle, Sheila and Pat Bello, also have strong connections to Sea Isle. Pat Bello serves as a volunteer and an advisory board member with For Pete’s Sake. Schankweiler said Pat and Sheila Bello were instrumental in their famous niece’s upcoming appearance in the virtual fundraiser.
Normally, For Pete’s Sake and its sponsors team up to send cancer patients and their family members on “respite” trips to the Caribbean, the Jersey Shore and other vacation destinations, including summer outings in Sea Isle.
However, the pandemic has greatly limited the organization’s activities in the past year. For now, it has been sending eight to 10 families per month on getaways to the Pocono Mountains at Woodloch Resort in Hawley, Pa.
It also has been sponsoring at-home staycations for cancer patients and their families during the pandemic.
“When the pandemic happened, we transitioned to local travel and transitioned to staycations,” Schankweiler explained.
With fundraising help from the March 25 virtual event, the hope is that For Pete’s Sake will be able to resume the types of getaways to the Caribbean, Jersey Shore and other destinations that it formerly sponsored. That would include the annual summer outings to Sea Isle.
“This is the big event for the year. It’s going to make a lasting impact on the journey for people with cancer,” Schankweiler said of the fundraiser.
The vacations sponsored by For Pete’s Sake help ease the emotional and physical challenges caused by cancer.
The name of the organization was inspired by Schankweiler’s late first husband, Peter Bossow Jr., a former Sea Isle lifeguard who died of testicular cancer in 1999 when he was just 30 years old.
Marci Schankweiler grew up in Sea Isle as Marci Kuttler, the daughter of Mariann and Herb Kuttler. The Kuttler family has owned the Maryanne Pastry Shoppe in Sea Isle for more than 50 years.
During her youth, Marci worked in the pastry shop, while Bossow was a Sea Isle lifeguard. They went to dances together in town, attended the senior prom, fell in love and got married.
Seven months before he passed away, Pete and Marci traveled to the Caribbean islands of St. John and Nevis during a trip paid for by their friends and family.
“It was Pete’s idea to go away, to leave cancer behind and to celebrate,” Schankweiler recalled in an earlier interview. “He told me, ‘Cancer can’t destroy the love in our heart and the warmth in our soul.’’’
During the trip, Pete and Marci came up with the idea of creating For Pete’s Sake to give other cancer patients and their caregivers a respite from the disease. Since its founding in 1999, the organization and its sponsors have helped more than 9,000 cancer patients and their families.
