Thomas Shumate
Mary Lynn Rajskub
BY KATHY KANE
Thanks to a little “star power,” tickets are expected to get snapped up fast for next month’s Signature Event, the annual fundraiser for the Trenton Educational Foundation.
This year’s Wall of Fame inductees includes 1989 Trenton High School graduate Mary Lynn Rajskub, a familiar face in the movie, TV and comedy club circle.
She will be inducted along with noted wildlife painter and sculptor Thomas Shumate, who is being inducted posthumously.
The event will be held at Crystal Gardens at 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 5, with dinner served at 7 p.m., followed by a program that not only includes the Wall of Fame inductions, but also will showcase things achieved at Trenton Public Schools thanks to the financial support of the TEF.
Rajskub, an actor and comedian perhaps best known for her role as Chloe O’Brien on TV’s 24, was selected for excellence in her field, encompassing acting in more than 100 TV shows and movies. She currently is appearing in the Amazon Prime series “The Tomorrow War,” and also was featured in The Drop Out (coming to Hulu) and Night School, plus many others.
In 2006 Rajskub was awarded the Female Breakthrough Award for her comedic stage productions and acting prowess in both TV and film. She was also nominated and won for the Screen Actors Guild Awards twice, in 2005 and 2007. She won the Breaking Thru Award in 2008. In 2010 she was nominated for a Teen Choice Award. In 2005 she was nominated for a Gold Derby TV Award and has served as the Grand Marshall in America’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
She has been featured in multiple national magazines and newspaper articles along with the cover of TV Guide and USA Weekend. She has appeared in all of the major talk shows and has performed her popular stand-up comedy act across the United States and in Canada, England and Scotland.
When asked who should play her in a movie, Rajskub cracked, “I think that the choice is clear — Oprah Winfrey. You can see a lot of similarities. We’re both geniuses, we’re both incredibly wealthy, and we’ve both started schools in Africa.” She has a teenage son, Valentine, and lives in California.
Shumate, a 1960 THS graduate, died in 2004 at age 62. He was a prominent businessman involved in his family sign business, Townsend Signs. Along with a diagnosis of prostate cancer, he was an active advocate of the American Cancer Society and he and his family were participants in the Cancer Society Relay for life raising more than $40,000 in cancer research.
As a wildlife artist, Schumate donated his carvings and art to local charities. He was a key figure in the Gibraltar and Trenton Rotary clubs where he created the “Muskrat Dinner” and helped organize the Trenton Rotary Club’s Wild Game dinners. The Wild Game dinner benefited Rotary’s Tom Shumate Endowment for the Arts.
Shumate received a Paul Harris Fellow Award in 2000 as well as a “Salute to Excellence” award from the Downriver Council for the Arts. He served on the DCA and Great Lakes Symphony as a board member until his death. TEF Wall of Fame nominators said hse was a highly respected Downriver resident and artist who continues to influence community groups. His service to others and tremendous talent and passion for wildlife is his legacy to the Downriver area.
Nearly 30 people have been placed on the Wall of Fame since its inception in 2012. Past inductees include Boyd Arthurs, Neil Van Riper, Randy Wiseman, Jack Kripowicz, J.J. Putz, Larry Leapley, Richard Hedke, John Doyle, Lonnie Shea, Donald Kolcheff, Ronald Sams, Carol Oakley, Andy Greene, Gerald Brown, George Mans, Vincent “Joe” Porreca, Jesse Anderson, William Wilson, George Wendt, Michael McNally, Janice Misko, Dr. E. Lea Schelke, Dr. James Eberhardt, Dennis Hamilton and last year Major Colonel Nathaniel Davis, Richard Bryant and late Mayor Kyle Stack.
Tickets are $50 and include dinner and two cocktails. Donations and sponsorships can be purchased at trentonedfound-ation.org. Along with the inductions, the evening also features dinner, dancing, cocktails and prize drawings.