An Evening of Gratitude

The Children’s Melanoma Prevention Foundation (CMPF) and its award-winning SunAWARE for Life education program have been acquired by the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF), effective immediately. CMPF is based in Norwell, MA. MRF, headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the largest independent organization devoted to melanoma. The announcement was made jointly by the Boards of the two organizations.

To mark the acquisition, CMPF Founder and Executive Director Maryellen Maguire-Eisen and a group of CMPF Board members, staff, educators, volunteers and donors gathered at the Black Rock Country Club in Hingham to celebrate an Evening of Gratitude. The event acknowledged that the critically important skin cancer education and advocacy work that has been accomplished by CMPF over nearly two decades will continue and grow into an even larger national initiative through MRF. Since being founded by Maguire-Eisen in 2003, CMPF has educated more than 1 million children in schools and throughout the community.

CMPF also presented its 2021 “Excellence in Melanoma Prevention Award” to Erin Presutti, CMPF’s former Assistant Executive Director. The award acknowledges an individual who has provided exceptional service and leadership in the prevention of melanoma through education, research, policy development, legislative action and/or raising community awareness.

In the transfer, the Children’s Melanoma Prevention Foundation will dissolve and the Melanoma Research Foundation will acquire all of CMPF’s educational programs, publications, intellectual property and assets. CMPF’s Norwell headquarters will close in the process.

Maguire-Eisen said, “Following this 18-year journey, we are so pleased to now be part of the largest independent organization devoted to prevention, diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. We have been working with their team to help plan for the utilization and implementation of our SunAWARE curriculum and program resources through the MRF platform. It is abundantly clear that their culture, work ethic and commitment to preventing melanoma is perfectly aligned with ours.”

MRF Board Chair Doug Brodman added, “Melanoma education is a foundational pillar of the MRF’s mission with a strategic focus on prevention. We applaud the exceptional leadership of the CMPF staff and board to promote a lifetime of sun safe behaviors and are proud to share this with an even wider audience through the MRF Education Institute.”

SunAWARE FOR LIFE

The SunAWARE for Life program is a school curriculum and community education initiative aligned with the National Health Education Standards designed to promote sun protection and skin cancer prevention in children, teens and adults. The curriculum has been integrated into the MRF’s Education Institute, making the critically important resource available to the millions of users who visit the MRF website annually. Thanks to the forward looking, innovative work of the CMPF, new video lessons make the program completely accessible in a digital format designed for home, hybrid or in-school learning.

The virtual content of the program allows educators to facilitate an engaging, entertaining and interactive program customized to the individual needs of the school or organization, illustrating UV exposure, sun damage and proper sunscreen application

Each year, CMPF provided its award-winning SunAWARE For Life Program to more than 100,000 children and the adults who care for them. Its mission has been to prevent skin cancer, one child at a time, through education and advocacy. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, trained Foundation staff provided free, in-person sun safety awareness presentations at local schools and day cares, parks, tourist sites, sailing and recreation centers, and at professional conventions and symposia.

A SHARED MISSION

CMPF Board Chair Sara Ader explained the background of the acquisition saying, “The challenges for us in early 2020 were significant. The imminent retirement of Maryellen Maguire-Eisen, our Founder and long-time Executive Director, combined with the realities of fundraising during the Covid-19 pandemic, led us to explore a strategic merger as our best path forward toward maximizing our mission. Our goal was to ensure that CMPF’s critical community-based educational and advocacy work would continue. And it was critical to us that any potential partner would share our mission and priorities.”

Following months of research and discussion by CMPF’s Board to identify potential merger organizations, MRF stood out for its leadership's passion for its mission to "eradicate melanoma by accelerating medical research while educating to and advocating for the melanoma community."

Ader said, “That was incredibly similar to our own mission, with the main difference being MRF had activities in areas that we would have loved to expand into but hadn't yet been able to due to resource limitations.”

• Among its many achievements, CMPF has:

- Successfully partnered with local and national organizations as well as public health experts in Massachusetts to advocate for an indoor tanning ban for minors, signed into law by Governor Baker in 2016.

- Been an active participant in initiatives including as Don’t Fry Day, Melanoma Monday®,

Congressional Skin Cancer Screening and Health Fairs on Capitol Hill, and the annual Legislative Conference in collaboration with the Dermatology Nurses’ Association (DNA) and the Coalition of Skin Diseases (CSD).

- Worked closely with South Shore Medical Center to educate new parents about infant sun safety.

- Partnered with the National Park Services, Boston Harbor Islands and Boston Harbor Now

to educate visitors, residents and Island staff about the importance of proper sun protection.

- Introduced SUNucate legislation to allow children to bring sunscreen to school and camps.

- Taught thousands of health professionals, teachers, parents, coaches, recreational staff, and others

about the importance of sun protection and skin cancer prevention for children.

To learn more about the life-saving importance of melanoma prevention at every age, visit https://melanoma.org.

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