Fish sale takes man from cancer survivor to top fund-raiser

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward O'ahu Writer

KAILUA — Cancer survivor Charlie Schmucker is a man who beat the odds and likes to challenge himself to do better.

Charlie Schmucker, with wife, Dianne, plans to auction this playhouse as a fund-raiser. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

When he recovered all he wanted to do was fish, feel the sea breeze on his face and smell the salt air.

That first fishing trip during recovery gave him back his life and revived his spirits, he said. Anchoring off U-buoy about 9 miles outside Kane'ohe Bay, he filled a cooler with aku and 'ahi, all about five pounds each.

On the way home he passed the Relay For Life fund-raiser, which he had never heard of, and stopped to ask if he could sell his fish and donate the money to the organization. The mini fish sale orchestrated from his cooler brought in $120.

He's been involved with the fund-raiser and a volunteer for the Windward unit ever since, each year challenging himself and others to raise more money than the year before. Last year's fund raising brought in $9,100. And to outdo himself this year, he enlisted friends and local businesses to build a playhouse he'll auction.

The Hawaiian plantation-style playhouse, Hale O Keiki, is designed by an architect. The dark-green, wood-framed, double-wall building with white trim has a chimney, deck, cedar shake roof and sleeps 12 children. It will be auctioned July 12 at the Kailua American Cancer Society Relay for Life at Kailua Beach Park.

But first, the 12-by-28-by-12-foot high structure will appear in the Kailua Fourth of July Parade as a float for the Cancer Society. Decorated in red, white and blue, it will carry children who are in cancer treatment.

Schmucker and his wife, Dianne, and Kane'ohe Yacht Club Fishing Fleet members and their spouses want to break their fund-raising record with the playhouse and a food booth dubbed the Cure Cafe, which they have operated at the Relay for Life for several years.

Byrde Cestare, head of the Windward Unit of the Cancer Society, said the Schmuckers are the kinds of volunteers that go above and beyond what is expected and their very unusual donation is a reflection of their personalities.

"They just try to outdo themselves," Cestare said. "They're competing with themselves as to what they raise for the Cancer Society."

After the first year, Schmucker got members of the yacht club fishing fleet to donate fish, weighing 20- to 100-pound each, to the event. They also sold fish burgers, bringing in $1,500.

The third year, club members created a fishing tournament called The Fishermen Want to Catch the Cure Too. Smoked marlin jerky, poke and New England clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl were added to the menu and they named their booth the Cure Cafe, which earned $5,700.

They now have a restaurant at the relay and "people assume they have a regular restaurant," Cestare said.

All of last year's $9,100 in proceeds from the tournament and Cure Cafe were donated to the American Cancer Society in Hawai'i, said Schmucker.

"I wanted to beat those numbers," Schmucker said about his current project. "But I didn't know how I could do it. You can sell only so much fish."

So he came up with the idea for the playhouse and making it into a float. Schmucker doesn't want to reveal the upset price for the building, fearing it might scare people off. He wants people to see it before he sets the bidding limit.

Schmucker is the first to admit that he can't increase the amount of money he raises year after year without help. The fish that he sold from a cooler that first year were caught by just him and his son. This year, he lists 15 businesses that will support his Cure Cafe, and there will be another fishing tournament. Nine individuals and businesses made the playhouse possible.

The yearly amounts increased over the past four years as more people got involved, he said.

"It was fun watching it grow from just an idea of selling a few fish, selling more fish, making a menu and getting everybody involved," Schmucker said.

Larry Lanning, marketing director for Hardware Hawaii Ace, which contributed all of the building material for the playhouse, said the company thought the donation was to a worthwhile cause and wanted to support Schmucker.

"The doctors didn't give me nine months to live," Schmucker said. "The doctors gave me a 15 percent chance of making it."

He had two tumors the size of tennis balls in his right lung. He thought agent orange, used in Vietnam War to defoliate plants, was the culprit. He also smoked.

But he was a fighter and said he refused to let cancer take his spirit and his life.

He keeps raising money because of doctors who treated him, for the people who found the cure for him and to help them find the cure that will wipe out cancer some day, he said.

"I was fortunate," Schmucker said. "I think maybe the man upstairs has a mission for me to help other people that are going through the same problem."

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.