Heather Pick, a popular former WREX-13 news anchorwoman, died today in her Hilliard, Ohio, home surrounded by family after her often-public battle with breast cancer. Pick, 38, was an evening news anchorwoman at WREX-13 for six years before she left in 2002 to anchor the morning news at WBNS 10 TV news in Columbus. She was diagnosed with cancer in 1999. In 2004, she discovered the cancer had returned and spread.
In Columbus, Pick took her viewers with her on an educational wig-shopping trip as she battled her cancer. She appeared on the noon newscast, which she also anchored, for the last time in early October from home. She wore a pink wig in a nod to Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
A year ago, she recorded and released a 13-track CD, the inspirational “Circle of Support." Proceeds of that release benefit cancer programs. Heather Pick is survived by her husband, Joe Cygan, and their children, Julia and Jack.
John Ivanic, who anchored at WREX-13 with Pick for about three years, said today that in Pick’s death, he “lost a kid sister.” Pick was two years younger than Ivanic, who left WREX-13 in 1998 to become a weekend and fill-in news anchor at NBC-4 in Columbus. Four years later, Pick was working at the competing CBS affiliate.
In Rockford, he remembered Pick used to sit on telephone books “the size of New York City’s, so we would look even” in their anchor desk chairs. “She was so tiny, so slight and so energetic. No one in the newsroom outworked her.”
In Columbus, Ivanic said, he occasionally anchored morning shows. “We would compare the (ratings) numbers the next day. She would call and tell me she kicked my butt.” Sometimes, it was vice-versa.
Ivanic, who now works as communications director for the Columbus City Council, also remembers Pick outside of work thanks to a Rockford connection: They attended a few Cheap Trick concerts in Columbus.
Maggie Hradecky, news director at WREX, said Pick stood out, despite her small stature. “Her bravery and her will to live set her apart from the crowd,” Hradecky said in an e-mail.
Pick also stood firm on the presentation of her breast cancer series at WREX, though station managers questioned whether the series was too real, Hradecky said. “She said breast cancer wasn’t pretty, and her story shouldn’t sugarcoat it.”
Those who would like to make donations in Pick’s memory are being asked to consider The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Nationwide Children’s Hospital or the Stefanie Spielman Fund.
A bench in Pick’s honor will be dedicated by a pond near the entrance to the Columbus Zoo, where she liked to visit with family.
In lieu of flowers and cards, Heather Pick requested this, according to an e-mail from family friend Miguel Perez: “Don’t wait. Give someone an unexpected gift just because you appreciate them.
Take your own loved ones to a cherished community treasure or try something completely new.”
Source: http://rrstar.com
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