Face2Face Healing celebrates 10 years of hope and healing with Bloomin’ Butterflies fundraiser
Karen Scuilli was a single mom and full-time registered nurse pursuing her doctorate when, in 2012, she was diagnosed with stage 4 parotid gland cancer.
“I was working full time, going to school part time and taking care of my son. It felt like my life was all organized; the puzzle fit. It’s like this bomb blew up the pieces to my puzzle,” Scuilli said. “I imagined myself climbing the corporate ladder at Highmark, and growing and expanding in that way. I had to restart my life. I had to figure out, how do I move forward? You never know where your path’s going to lead.”
Her path led, by way of intense treatment, to the founding of Face2Face Healing, a nonprofit that creates community for those with cancer or other conditions that cause an altered self-image through outreach, advocacy, activity, resources and education. This year marks one decade of Face2Face Healing creating connections and spreading hope throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
“When I survived, I just said, ‘OK, what do you (God) want me to do?’ What was interesting to me is how different things were for me when I was trying to climb the corporate ladder,” Scuilli said.
Climbing the corporate ladder was difficult; when she started focusing her time and energy on the nonprofit, “doors just opened,” she marveled.
Face2Face Healing offers free services to all cancer patients and disfigurement patients, from case management, including help navigating what Scuilli calls the “medical maze,” to counseling with a certified clinical psychologist and support groups, to massage and reiki.
The nonprofit also offers financial support and provides those undergoing treatment with personal care packages, which are filled with lotions and lip balm, puzzle books and peppermints, journals and wireless earbuds – everything one might need during hospital stays or on treatment days.
“It’s a holistic approach to healing. It’s mind, body, spirit. The plan of care is individualized,” Scuilli said. “We understand firsthand the complications, or the things they go through. We’ve tailored the programs to be around things that are missing or were not available when I was going through treatment.”
By the time Scuilli was diagnosed, her cancer had spread. She underwent intense treatment, which left her unable to work or interact with her son, Seth, the way she wanted.
“I actually leaned into God for support. My faith has increased immensely. When the pain was so bad, I prayed, ‘Just take me, I can’t do this,'” she said. But, “My son was my why, my constant and my why.”
Scuilli’s faith, and support from family members, friends and church community, got her through. She defied the odds and beat cancer. But the treatment changed her, and the surgeries, including reconstructive facial surgery, turned the woman in the mirror into a stranger. The once confident and extroverted Scuilli found herself avoiding people and places.
“I kind of hid,” she admitted. “If I would go out in public, people would stare at me, make comments. I didn’t always feel welcome. I felt that people were staring, they didn’t make eye contact, they didn’t smile or say hello. When you get those reactions, then you start putting your head down. My son was 7 at the time. I didn’t want him to be affected; he’s already been through so much.”
Throughout her treatment, Scuilli noticed a void in care when it came to self-care and disfigurement support. She searched for organizations or nonprofits that offered what was lacking, and quickly discovered the resources she needed did not exist.
“The only nonprofit I found that dealt with people with disfigurement was in the U.K.,” she said. “There was one someone was trying to start (in the U.S.); it never got off the ground.”
So Scuilli, at the encouragement of her doctor, launched a nonprofit that would help all people with any cancer and condition that led to physical disfigurement. She called the nonprofit Face2Face Healing.
“To me, that was the most important aspect of communication: having eye contact with someone – I’m listening, I’m validating your presence,” she said.
The nonprofit was for its first three years based in Shadyside; Louise Brown, executive director of the Shadyside Hospital Foundation, “was the first one to actually believe in us,” Scuilli said. The foundation funded Face2Face Healing those first three years.
In 2017, the foundation moved to its current Wexford offices and, in October 2023, expanded into Washington County when Scuilli signed a contract with CNX Headquarters in Southpointe.
“The collaboration that I’ve been able to do there has been amazing,” Scuilli said. “Learning and growing and increasing my reach … with many wonderful people has just been a true blessing.”
Scuilli said cancer rates throughout the U.S. are increasing; 1 in 4 people is diagnosed.
“We get anywhere from one to three new patients a day, which is crazy. We’re needed. I’m glad I’m so needed, but it saddens me, because it seems like the cancer in different conditions continues to grow,” she said.
To meet demand and spread hope and healing throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania and beyond, Face2Face Healing is hosting a spring fundraiser Friday, April 26, at MaxxCole Salon & Skin Spa in Robinson. The Bloomin’ Butterflies spring fling fundraiser was made possible by MaxxCole, whose owner, Nicole Lerda, is on the nonprofit’s board, and Fort Pitt Capital.
The evening begins with light dinner and wine around 5 p.m., and guests will enjoy three hours of camaraderie and pampering before leaving with an AVEDA gift bag filled with indulgent self-care goodies. The fundraiser is, in a sense, a way to experience the self-care Scuilli wants all Face2Face Healing consumers to experience when they turn to the nonprofit for help.
“We want them to have hope. When you’re so stressed, you’re not taking care of yourself and taking time to unwind and laugh and get little mini manicures and just pamper yourself. We’re so busy in this world: we’re either taking care of kids, your family, your older parents. We wanted to do something pampering,” she said.
Space is limited, but tickets to the Bloomin’ Butterflies fundraiser are still available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bloomin-butterflies-a-spring-fling-fundraiser-for-face2face-healing-tickets-850149057717.
For more information on Face2Face Healing, or to make a donation, visit https://face2facehealing.org/.