Terrence Meck found — and lost — love early in his life when his fun-loving and hard-working husband Rand Skolnick died suddenly of pancreatic cancer 16 years ago. But Meck discovered a path to recovery through helping others.
“The power of turning that pain into this passion was how I healed,” he, 46, tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “It was our story that birthed the journey for the foundation.”
Meck’s grief was channeled into The Palette Fund, which has granted more than $15 million to more than 200 organizations, ranging from grassroots LGBTQ+-serving groups to major health care institutions and international campaigns aimed at erasing LGBTQ+ stigma.
Meck was 24 when he met Skolnick, CEO of the family-owned Solgar Vitamin and Herb Company and a well-known philanthropist. They were together for six years before Skolnik was diagnosed on Meck’s 30 birthday in March 2008.
Four months later, on July 4, 2008, Skolnick died at 50 — but not before the two formed the financial base for the charity foundation that Meck would helm after Skolnick’s death, beginning that very same year.
“We always talked about starting a foundation together,” says Meck, who owned and ran three hotels and restaurants with Skolnick. “He was touched that my heart and mind was on this [when he was dying]. He just said, ‘Please don’t name it after me.’ “
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Courtesy of Terrence Meck
Meck has now been inspired to take an innovative twist to foundation’s grant giving after binge-watching RuPaul’s Drag Race during a bout with COVID-19 in 2021.
For the most recent season of the franchise, Drag Race All Stars season 9, the queen who snatches the crown will win $200,000, from The Palette Fund, to donate to their charity of choice.
The eight queens returning to the show and the charities they have chosen to compete for are Angeria Paris VanMicheals (season 14) for the National Black Justice Collective, Gottmik (season 13) for Trans Lifeline, Jorgeous (season 14) for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Nina West (season 11) for The Trevor Project, Plastique Tiara (season 11) for The Asian American Foundation, Roxxxy Andrews (season 5, All Stars 2) for Miracle of Love, Shannel (season 1, All Stars 1) for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and Vanessa Vanjie (seasons 10 and 11) for the ASPCA.
Giving back was a big draw for the returning queens.
“My reason for coming back to All Stars was because a giant part of me is devoted to charity and to organizations that try to uplift and amplify people’s lives and provide agency,” Nina West told Variety. “It is still competitive, but what was great was the fact that we were all playing for different charities, and what mattered to me was The Trevor Project, so I jumped at the opportunity.
Meck believes Skolnik would be pleased with the tie-in to the drag community.
He remembers the first time he saw Skolnik as he was walking through the Newark airport, in New Jersey. Although he says they “caught eyes” on their flight to Miami, they did not see each other again on the plane.
But then, improbably, Meck spotted Skolnik two nights later dancing on a very crowded dance floor.
As Meck made his way over, Skolnik spun around and said, “I knew you would find me!”
“And that began six years of the most amazing love I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Meck, who was a publicist for Wine Spectator magazine at the time, says now.
Skolnik introduced Meck to the drag community when the two bought the Raven in New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 2004, one of the oldest gay establishments in the Northeast.
“I had never really been part of the drag community, but Rand had done drag in his younger years,” Merk says. “I still wasn’t very comfortable in my own gay identity.”
But Skolnick was all about the fun and had Merk dress up as “Taylor Made.”
“They used to make fun of me because I worked at Gucci and they thought I was very fancy for this Bucks County town,” Merk says, laughing. “So Taylor had a little tiny career.”
Courtesy of Terrence Meck
Merk admits he had never seen an episode of Drag Race prior to his COVID confinement. But he and his now partner of 14 years, Breton Alberti, decided to binge watch the popular competition series.
“I was just in awe of this community that I knew struggled with making ends meet and yet do so much for charity all the time,” Meck says.
And then the idea struck him for a tie-in and he quickly sent a text to his old friend Carson Kressley, a longtime judge on the series: “I have this crazy idea. Do you think Drag Race would ever be up for instilling philanthropy into the show?”
Kressley quickly responded with, “This is right in line with what the show has been talking about.”
Their first collaboration was during season 7 of All Stars, in which The Palette Fund offered $30,000 for one episode’s winning queen to give to her chosen charity. Shea Couleé donated to The Period Poverty Project. Merk surprised the other queens with $10,000 each donated to their charities, too.
But it was all in for the All Stars this season, with the season finale set for July 19.
“A goal of all of this is that I have been deciding where this money goes about 80% of the time,” Meck says. “I wanted to give that power away to people who don’t look like me, who didn’t have my background.”
And it’s something that blends many of the things Skolnick loved in life, including Meck, he says.
“Rand got such a kick out of [me in drag]. He thought I was gorgeous and funny and I probably wasn’t any of those things,” Meck says. “But I think he saw a little bit of himself in his 20s. They really had to hide more back in those days. Now, we can celebrate it.”
