Rand Harlan Skolnick died more than a year ago, his aspirations of advancing social change are very much alive.
Before his July 2008 death of pancreatic cancer, Skolnick worked to revitalize the LGBT nightlife scene in New Hope. His partner, Terrence Meck, said Skolnick’s vision stretched far beyond the riverside town.
The pair, who purchased New Hope’s The Raven in 2004 and also launched the town’s Nevermore Hotel in 2007, began laying the groundwork for a national grantmaking and educational foundation several years ago.
“Our plan was to start it in the next five or 10 years. We thought our lives would be together, so we had talked a lot about what we wanted to see and what we wanted to do moving forward,” Meck said.
When Skolnick was diagnosed with cancer in the spring of 2008, Meck said the two, who were together for six years, fast-tracked their plans.
“It was very difficult trying to imagine life without him, but in those months we had some really good conversations about this,” Meck said.
The Palette Fund, named after an L.A. restaurant where Skolnick and his best friend Peter Benassi met more than 25 years ago, launched last month to provide financial support to organizations working with LGBT youth, HIV/AIDS prevention, nutrition and patient navigation, and will also work to expand public awareness about all four issues.
Skolnick wanted Palette to focus in part on LGBT youth because, Meck said, “he believed in the potential of youth and in developing the next generation of leaders.”
The two other areas of concentration evolved in part from the lessons the couple learned during Skolnick’s four-month battle with cancer.
Meck said Skolnick, who worked for many years at his family’s Solgar Vitamin and Herb Company, had a deep appreciation for the power of nutrition, furthered during his illness.
“When he was diagnosed, we had a chef come to our house who became a dear friend, and Rand spent a lot of time talking with her about nutrition and decided he really wanted that to be a part of the foundation,” Meck said. “We saw how much of a difference good food can make in your quality of life. When you have cancer, eating can be really painful, and Rand lost a ton of weight, but when he started working with [chef] Ruth [Fehr], he began to be able to eat again, and for us to be able to have meals together and feel like life was somewhat normal was really an amazing experience.”
Meck said he and Skolnick also had a patient advocate to help them navigate the ins and outs of a cancer diagnosis, a service that could be invaluable to others.
“We found a wonderful patient advocate who came in and just mapped out our choices. Without him, I would’ve been the one at the computer all day and night trying to figure things out and not having the time to be there for Rand in the way that I wanted to be.”
The foundation’s work is being supported by the $13.5 million allotted in Skolnick’s estate, and Meck said the organization will also begin fundraising efforts in 2010 to perpetuate the work.
The organization has already announced two grant recipients for 2010.
The Point Foundation, a national LGBT student organization, will offer the inaugural Rand Harlan Skolnick Scholarship beginning next fall, and Palette has also teamed up with Point to create an internship program for former Point scholars, starting this summer.
Meck said the foundation, headquartered in New York, is committed to exploring funding opportunities throughout the country.
Meck still owns Nevermore and The Raven, which was recently leased to a former employee, and proceeds from the sale of either establishment — which Meck said he is considering, although not in the immediate future — will go to the foundation.
For more information, visit www.palettefund.org.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].