Friends organizing fund-raiser to help

By GERRY GOLDSTEIN, Valley Breeze & Observer Correspondent

SMITHFIELD - When 5-foot, 1-inch Shannon Sullivan became the first girl to play varsity hockey here, in 1991, she despaired of looking dainty - so before each game she would tuck her flowing, flame-red hair into her helmet.

Her opponents cut her no slack on the ice; she remembers once being checked so hard that "I had to crawl back to the bench - I could barely catch my breath."

Now, the glory of two high school championships is long past, and at 32, she concedes with characteristic understatement that "I'm kind of in a pickle."

A fighter by nature, Sullivan is confronting hard times. And once again on her mind are those trademark, shoulder-length curls.

She pauses for a moment in a conversation laced with humor and composure, and then confides, "The first time I cried was last Thursday, when my hair was falling out in my hands."

That was the private Shannon Sullivan few see as she confronts her second bout with cancer in four years - but true to form that day, she quickly reached for the positive. Her tears dried, she says, and she took control.

"I told myself, 'Get the razor and shave it all off' - then I was fine."

That is, as fine as one can be facing both a new diagnosis of cancer and a simultaneous job layoff after 12¬½ years that has left her without a paycheck and without health insurance.

Described by a childhood neighbor, Jenny Cavanagh Trainor, as someone who "went full-force into everything and had to be the best," Sullivan is about to get a major boost over these latest hurdles.

Trainor and another friend, Alyson Aceto, are spearheading an Aug. 30 fund-raiser for Sullivan that will be highlighted by - what else? - a benefit community hockey game at the Smithfield rink, billed as "Skate for Sully."

The 2 p.m. game - ice time has been donated by the town-operated rink - will be followed by a separate buffet at Ticker's Sports Grill on Cedar Swamp Road.

Trainor said that she and others appreciate how much the ebullient Sullivan has done for them, and they want to return the favor.

Five years younger than the athletic Sullivan, and having grown up across from her on Sturbridge Avenue, Trainor recalls, "Everybody wanted to be like Shannon."

High School Athletic Director Tony Torregrossa, who saw Sullivan as a scrappy softball player as well, remembers her as "a tough little kid. A dive-on-the-ground kind of ballplayer."

That's what led Sullivan to varsity hockey - a drive to compete where the competition was toughest, she says. Previously, she played for the Rhode Island Panthers in a women's league, but wanted to crank up the challenge because "You could only go so far skating with the girls."

Trying out for the varsity as a sophomore in 1991, "I was nervous," she said, but she won a spot buoyed by encouragement from team members including Matt Lillibridge, Ken and Eddie Pike, and Brian Van Gorden.

A left wing forward, Sullivan remembers spending plenty of time on the bench. But the squad was so good, she said, that "We would crush other teams, so they'd put me out there."

Her double blow came just a few months ago, with the layoff and the near-simultaneous discovery that her previous breast cancer - which required a lumpectomy and arduous chemotherapy and radiation - had spread to a lung.

She had surgery in June, and once again is resigned to treatments including a new six-month round of debilitating chemotherapy.

Because she lost her health coverage, she's now enrolled in a temporary COBRA plan that she cannot afford on her unemployment compensation income - so her retired parents are covering the $484 monthly payments.

Sullivan's life these days is a mixture of anxiety, optimism, and even gratitude.

She's researching what government benefits may be available to help; is looking for a new job even though the chemo saps her strength and limits available work time; and can't say enough about her partner, insurance agent Sandy Harrop, with whom she lives in an airy house just a home run's distance from Pawtucket's McCoy Stadium.

"Right now, she's carrying the team," Sullivan says in a typical sports metaphor.

Sullivan says the treatment she has chosen is aggressive, because in such situations "You've got to be feisty. If you're going to be a pistol, you should be a spitfire."

Still, she concedes, it's a hard battle to wage - especially since medical co-pays and other related expenses are helping contribute to "a stack of unpaid bills in the other room."

Still, she prefers to see the upside in all of this, even though she's young to be facing such challenges. On the other hand, she muses, "I could be a kid at St. Jude's Hospital. It puts everything in perspective. I try to keep upbeat - I don't want to spend my life in doom and gloom."

The game to benefit Shannon Sullivan, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30, will feature volunteer players who are at least 16 years old, and will include a slapshot contest for spectators and a puck throw competition for children. Game tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12. Tickets for the after-game buffet at Ticker's are $15. For more information or to sign on as a player contact Alyson Aceto at 487-7085 or aaceto21@yahoo.com, or Jenny Trainor at 255-7582 or jenn_trainor@yahoo.com.