Shred for Red returns Saturday to raise awareness and funds for the fight against blood cancer.
The on-mountain skiing event is a collaboration between The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and Deer Valley Resort. Eligible participants receive a lift ticket to ski at Deer Valley, a bib to compete in the event’s scavenger hunt and slalom racecourse, access to the aprés ski celebration, and a “meet and ski” with a number of winter Olympians. To be eligible, participants must raise a minimum of $500, or $300 for children under 12. This year, the fundraising goal is set to $600,000.
Shred for Red enters its seventh season at Deer Valley this year, honoring 7-year-old Owen Modena as the event’s Honored Hero.
The Honorary Hero Program at the society grants national recognition to people who have been diagnosed with a blood cancer. With their strength and resilience, these heroes serve to inspire supporters, staff and other patients and help share a sense of belonging and community.
Owen was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in February 2023 at 5 years old.
Throughout Owen’s cancer journey, “his port, a feeding tube, his hair; he had all of these things he had to re-identify with. But there he was still wanting to tell his story and share it with his new friends and classmates,” said Owen’s mom, Laura Modena. “When he was asked to be the honorary hero, he immediately wanted to do it. I think it’s because this kid was meant to tell his story.”
Modena said that Shred for Red had provided Owen with a great sense of community and togetherness while he was undergoing treatment.
“When we went to his first Shred for Red, Owen met Reilly, the 2023 honorary hero, and other kids and survivors, too, and it was so important for him to know he’s not alone in Park City. He was surrounded by these kids like him,” Modena said.
“This kid is my hero,” Modena wrote in a journal entry through Caringbridge in February 2023.
After his second round of chemotherapy treatment, Owen said, “I want to keep fighting and kill all the cancers so nobody everywhere gets sick from the cancer.”
In March 2023, Owen was recovering from his third round of treatment and needed port nutrition through a feeding tube.
Despite the week’s difficulty, Modena wrote: “Another beautiful thing happened today; a kid got to ring the bell at the unit. This means he has finished this round of chemo treatment, the cancer is clear and he gets to go home.”
When Owen heard, “he immediately grabbed his shoes, and we ran out as fast as we could, and he and the kid had a special interaction with congratulations to him and his family,” wrote Modena.
“I look forward to the day we can ring that bell, too.”
Owen rang the bell in May 2023.
“He just is an amazing human. I look back and think of how positive he was,” said his mother.
Following a cancer scare one month later, Owen remained motivated.
“If this is what we have to do to fight cancer, then it’s what we have to do,” Owen told his mom. “Plus, they have nerf guns here, a lot of them, and they let me shoot them at the nurses!”
“The Honored Hero program makes it so that we can educate the people who don’t have a direct mission connection to blood cancer or to these stories and help them with their fundraising and helping with their mission,” said Rich Sloan, director at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. “But these kids, they feel like celebrities for the day. They hang out with Olympians, and they truly get to feel like they beat cancer. We really make sure that they feel like those champions as well.”
Owen and his family have raised over $3,000 for Shred for Red just on his individual page. As of Friday, the community had raised over $350,000 in total contributing to over half of the year’s goal.
The event begins at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday. This was Deer Valley’s expected opening date, before early conditions allowed the resort to open early. Deer Valley Resort donates the location, access to the race course, the après-ski reception and lift tickets for participants, said Emily Summers, director of communications.
“We were looking for a new season-opening event that had a closer connection to an organization here locally,” said Summers. “Our longtime medical director, Dr. Winn here at Deer Valley, was heavily involved with Utah LLS due to his wife being a leukemia survivor, and he was the tie to creating Shred for Red here at Deer Valley.”
Anyone is eligible to create a profile and begin fundraising to participate in Shred for Red. Donate to the 2024 Honorary Hero, Owen Modena’s page, here: cure.lls.org/fundraiser/5121305.