‘I’ve already lived my worst days on earth’

Heather Graves

Staff

November 4, 2024

GREEN BAY – Mike Schmidt – director of marketing and business development with BayCare Health Systems – said when he took the floor last month for the NEW Dancing with Our Stars (NEW DWOS) competition, it wasn’t about winning.

Instead, he said his Rumba Paso Doble to Tom Walker’s “Leave the Light On” with partner Mina White was about honoring his late daughter, Ava Rae – who passed away in late 2022 at age 14 due to sudden and severe complications of the flu – and about his chosen nonprofit, GRIT 920.

“‘Leave the Light On’ was one of Ava’s last solos at competition,” he said. “We actually played that song and her dance at her funeral so everyone could see her dance one last time. I’m proud to have represented GRIT 920, while also honoring Ava during this process.”

NEW DWOS

This was NEW DWOS’s second annual event – which is mirrored after the popular reality television show, “Dancing with the Stars,” now in its 23rd season.

After being announced last spring, eight local participants, each supporting a different local nonprofit organization, spent months not only practicing with their local professional dance partners – from Green Bay’s Studio 303 and Ballroom by Jay – but also fundraising for their chosen charities.

The NEW DWOS campaign wrapped up with the Oct. 5 showcase, in which Schmidt took home the top prize.

Schmidt said he first found out about NEW DWOS last year when he was invited to attend the competition by Kristy Maney – who went on to win the Jim Rivett Memorial Fundraising Mirror Ball Trophy, raising $93,000 in support of Family Services of Northeast Wisconsin in 2023.

“I never really heard about it before, but my wife and I attended with another couple, and I kind of joked about this with my buddy… ‘I think I could do this next year,’” he said.

One thing led to the next, and Schmidt said before he knew it, he was being announced as a 2024 NEW DWOS participant.

Within weeks of being selected as a participant, Schmidt said he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a type of cancer that develops in the lymph system.

Though the following months were filled with tests, scans and chemotherapy treatments, Schmidt said not once did he think about exiting the competition.

“I’ve already lived my worst days on earth when I had to bury our daughter,” he said. “So, anything God gives me, I know I can overcome it. And Ava is always with us, too.”

Schmidt said Ava Rae would likely have been making fun of how “awkward I was” at the beginning of the process.

“But I think as time went on, she would have said ‘you’re doing a great job, Dad,’” he said. “The dance gave me an opportunity to carry on Ava’s legacy – it was such an important aspect of her life, sometimes five days a week. So, it kind of gave me a little glimpse into her life during dance, and it was a gift to go through that process and see what she did to get ready for those competitions.”

Though dancing was definitely an “out-of-his-comfort-zone” activity for him, Schmidt said the support he received from his friends, family, dance partner and fellow participants throughout the process helped him keep his sights focused on the goal at hand: “raise as much as we can to support a great organization.”

“That’s the biggest thing – we all need to give back,” he said. “There’s so much need in the community – not only just from a dollar standpoint but from a volunteering standpoint as well.”

Schmidt said not only did his participation in NEW DWOS give him an opportunity to honor his daughter, Ava, it also allowed him to show his youngest daughter, Gabby, “what it means to give back to the community and be a community partner to make Green Bay and the surrounding area better.”

Though he walked away the champion of NEW DWOS, Schmidt said the whole process was a team effort.

“We’d run into each other in the studio, and we’d cheer each other on,” he said. “I already knew a handful of the other participants through my job or the community – so it was pretty awesome to see that side of them.”

With the focus of the competition being on raising funds for area nonprofits, Schmidt said they would always say “there are no losers.”

“Everything we did to raise the funds for our chosen nonprofits, and also to get that awareness for each of them, is really huge,” he said.

In the last two years, Schmidt said the NEW DWOS event has raised more than $1.2 million, which supported 16 nonprofit organizations in the area.

“I only see this event growing and getting bigger and better every year,” he said. “I am excited to be the first male to win it and plan to continue to help with the event as well as I can going forward.” 

GRIT 920

Over a handful of months, Schmidt said he raised more than $147,000 for GRIT 920 – an inclusive, adaptive fitness facility for all abilities and ages.

GRIT – “Greatest Requires Internal Toughness” – he said, welcomes athletes of all abilities to come in, get a workout, feel good about themselves and get that gym community feeling.

“We bus kids in from different school districts,” he said. “We bring kids from those schools in to partner with GRIT athletes and see those friendships and bonds form. We work with other adult programs in town as well.”

Schmidt said he’s been a partner and sponsor of GRIT 920 since it started.

“About a year and a half ago, they asked me to serve on the board as vice president,” he said.

It was an organization, Schmidt said, that he had planned to have Ava Rae volunteer at during her sophomore year.

“So the program has always been close to my heart,” he said. “It is really a one-of-a-kind type of organization.”

GRIT 920’s ultimate goal, Schmidt said, “is to build a facility dedicated to these athletes.”

“We’re excited about what that future holds, and NEW DWOS really helped shine a light on the need for this type of program,” he said. 

The journey ahead

Schmidt said he completed his last chemo treatment four days after the competition – wrapping up a long 24 weeks.

“An upcoming PET scan will hopefully verify that everything is out of my system from a tumor standpoint,” he said.

For now, Schmidt said it’s a matter of staying positive.

“I’ve got the support of my wife, our friends, our family and the community at large,” he said. “For anybody going through cancer – it’s not fun. You can’t sugarcoat it at all, but it’s something that people every day have to deal with. I just encourage people to stay positive and lean on those support systems to get you through those tough days.”