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Massaro: Foundation's namesake is surely smiling

By Gary Massaro, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published September 26, 2006 at midnight

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BRIGHTON - Mickaela Earle- Ross wasn't in show business. But this could have been her trademark: She left them laughing.

"Her favorite things were plastic spiders and and whoopee cushions," said her sister, Martine Reeh.

"She'd always plant spiders somewhere - on elevators, on desks, you name it," Reeh said.

She'd take whoopee cushions to chemotherapy sessions, slipping a pillow here and there to get a buzz out of her fellow cancer patients. She figured that just because she was dying didn't mean she had to quit laughing.

"It's almost like they looked forward to chemotherapy with the jokes," Reeh said. "They all had the same hairdos, so that helped."

Mickaela died in 2001 of breast cancer. "She was misdiagnosed," Reeh said.

The sisters were very close.

"I was like a baby duck following her. I was her shadow," Reeh said. "She was my idol."

Both were artists. They started a graphics business together. They called it Sysgraphics.

"The 'Sys' stood for sisters," Reeh said.

After Mickaela died, Reeh founded the nonprofit Mickaela Foundation. The foundation's business card sums up what it does: "Providing treatment funds for uninsured breast cancer patients in Colorado."

It was Mickaela's idea.

"She was disgusted that so many people had late-stage diagnoses because they had no insurance," Reeh said. "She wanted something started so people wouldn't have to make that kind of choice."

The Mickaela Foundation depends on donations and grants. It generally doles out the funds it raises in one-time payments, which average $750.

"For those ladies - and men - who have more treatments, I tell them to reapply next month," Reeh said. "I always tell people if we've got funding, you've got help. If I've got to stand on a corner with a can to get quarters, I'll do it."

To raise funds and awareness for breast cancer, Reeh is organizing a team to represent the Mickaela Foundation in the Race for the Cure on Oct. 8.

"We want 500 people," she said.

Pink is the color for breast cancer awareness, but Mickaela Foundation teammates will wear yellow when they walk in the local Race for the Cure, sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Denver branch.

"I believe that Mickaela told us to go yellow because it's different," Reeh said. "We're not your typical breast cancer foundation. And yellow is certainly different.

"Last year, we had 350 people on our team. You could see us from a satellite through the clouds."

When Gary Massaro listens, people talk. or 303-954-5271