ANNA MARIA – A memorial plaque that hung on a wall at the Rod & Reel Pier in memory of 10-year-old Max Schiller has been returned to his parents, United Kingdom residents Shira and David Schiller.
Shira and David live in London but spend five months a year at their second home in Longboat Key. Their daughter, Molly, 25, is a medical writer for a media corporation in London.
After Max passed away unexpectedly in his sleep in January 2015, his family learned he had an undetected, undiagnosed genetic heart condition known as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the muscle wall of the heart.
Plaque returned
On Oct. 9, Hurricane Milton destroyed what remained of the Rod & Reel Pier and restaurant in Anna Maria after Hurricane Helene previously inflicted serious damage to the wooden pier in late September.
Much of the Rod & Reel’s Milton-related debris landed in the waterfront yards of several nearby residential properties to the northwest, along the 800 block of North Shore Drive.
A significant portion of the pier debris landed on two residential properties owned by the Clark family. Their two adjacent ground-level residential properties were already slated for future demolition and redevelopment as a single residential structure to be built by the Ross Built Construction, a local company owned by Holmes Beach residents Greg and Lee Ross.
“We have a job site a few houses down from the Rod & Reel Pier and a lot of the pier crashed into our job site,” Lee Ross explained. “The day after the storm (Milton), our client said we think the pier landed on our property. We asked our team to meet at the Clark residence first thing in the morning to salvage any wanted items and pier memorabilia before people started taking them. The first thing we found was the plaque. Our son, Jake, found it still screwed to the wall with some signs and other items, so he unscrewed it.”
Lee then joined the Anna Maria Island Facebook group and posted a photo of the plaque and the following message: “This washed ashore at our job site. Does anyone know this family? We would love to return it to them. And hopefully someday back to the pier.”
“Within probably 15 minutes, someone said here’s the story of Max,” Lee said. “I was covered in goosebumps. Others reached out to Max’s mom and dad and within in an hour and a half we found them.”
On Oct. 16, Lee, Jake and a few other Ross Built team members met the Schillers at the Clark properties to present them with Max’s plaque.
“We used to holiday out here all the time before we owned our place in Longboat Key,” David said. “Max and I used to fish on the pier. We used to eat at the restaurant and have a drink with family and friends. After Max passed away those were good memories. One of our friends got the plaque made and asked the owner if we could put it up on the pier. They had no problem with that and every time we come back we visit it.”
“It means so much,” Shira said. “So many people have lost so much but they still took the time to find this. I think it’s amazing.”
“Shira was crying when she saw the picture on Facebook of the pier destroyed,” David said. “We were really upset. And then, we were contacted by these guys via Facebook. It was incredible the amount of people who looked up who Max was. There are memorial pages and videos of him and we run our own foundation and charity in the UK which raises money to research hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the condition he passed from. It’s a really big deal that we got this back. We’re hoping they can one day rebuild the pier and this plaque, or a replica, will go back up.”
Having grown up on the Island, the Rod & Reel Pier holds many memories for Jake Ross as well. When asked about finding Max’s plaque, Jake said, “We were walking around the debris and I saw a piece of wall with three signs on it and the memorial plaque. We unscrewed the plaque and figured we could return it somehow. Right when I saw it, I knew they’d want it back. I’m glad we got it back to them.”
The return of Max’s plaque was also the subject of a television news story that night back in the United Kingdom.
Two takeaways
When asked, Lee also addressed the impacts Ross Built Construction and other contractors are dealing with in the wake of back-to-back hurricanes.
“Greg’s lived on the Island since 1966, so every bit of this is important to us and I’m proud of our team,” Lee said. “The two takeaways are: The ‘little things’ matter the most – and returning this plaque has been a bright spot for us and the community. And building codes are important. We used to complain about the building codes because they’re difficult and challenging and not always aesthetically pleasing, but none of our homes have any serious issues. Our homes did well and we’re proud of that. It’s important to do the work and build beautiful homes, but it’s the little things like this that truly impact people.”
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