Legacies - Brandi’s Play in the Shade

legacies

The first Play in the Shade project was completed at Azle Christian School last year.

Brandi Dickey is the namesake of a foundation dedicated to minimizing melanoma risks in children.

Brandi’s Play in the Shade

By Randy Keck

The Community News

Brandi Dickie loved life. She loved the beach, kids, her dog. And she loved to travel.

“She was very laid back,” said her mom, Paula Pittsinger. “She was non-materialistic, just loved everybody.”

Brandi fought hard for five years but eventually lost to melanoma that had spread to her brain — at age 29.

“We found out later a lot of it, they think, was due to tanning beds and an overexposure to the sun,” Paula said.

One of the things Brandi wanted her survivors to do was start a foundation to cover playgrounds. Although it took a while to get started, the foundation is up and running.

“She passed away in ‘14 and then in ‘15 I established the foundation (Brandi’s Play in the Shade Foundation),” Paula said. “I’d established a foundation and then I didn’t do anything with it. I guess I wasn’t ready.”

Then one day in 2019, Paula was talking to her son and daughter-in-law. They felt it

was time to start doing something, and the foundation began raising money to put up shade in a playground.

The dream took material shape on Aug. 10, 2020, when construction began on the first playground at Azle Christian School.

Paula said it costs about $15,000 to construct a playground shade. She would like to get another one done this year.

“We’re just starting — this is our first time,” Paula said as the first shade was being constructed. “The school districts, I guess, budget for some of that. But we’re thinking maybe another kind of little private school that doesn’t have a lot of money, something like that.”

Paula said she thinks shade should be included in any playground design.

“I think it just needs to be budgeted in for everybody,” she said.

Why Shade? The Melanoma Research Foundation says nearly 90% of melanomas are thought to be caused by exposure to UV light and sunlight. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States, and Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer. More than 207,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with Melanoma in 2021, and more than 7,000 will die from it.

Tanning beds are a factor in the numbers, according to the MRF.

“A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that the risk of cutaneous melanoma is increased by 75% when use of tanning devices starts before 30 years of age,” a fact sheet said.

For Brandi, that mole that surfaced was only the beginning of her battle.

“It is spread to everywhere in her body,” Paula said. “It ends up in the brain, and then there’s just nothing they can do. She had like six craniotomies. She was a tough girl.”

Paula said Brandi thought the melanoma traced back to her childhood, which was a reason she wanted the foundation to focus on children.

And, she said, if you have a child or teenager, don’t go to tanning beds. “I would tell them to use a self-tanner. She (Brandi) would tell them the same thing — it’s not worth it. It’s not worth your life. Melanoma is so aggressive.”

On the day that first shade was being constructed, Paula was reflective.

“I was thinking about that today because I was driving out there and all of a sudden this weird feeling came over me and I looked up and I was at the church where we had her funeral and there were so many people there — it was the most that has ever been at that church. And then a quarter of a mile. The lady that used to keep her for me when she was a baby was standing out in her yard looking at her flowers like she always did when I dropped Brandi off. And then then I go past the golf course. And then it’s like, okay, I finally I feel like we’ve finally done what she wanted done.”

Volunteers begin work on the first Play in the Shade playground.

For more information, visit brandisplayintheshade.com.