Darcie Schmaltz-Vugrinovich

Darcie died on August 2, 2014, at the age of 34, due to complications of metastatic breast cancer.  She was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer when she was 28 years old and lived with the disease for 6 years before her death. Darcie was born on April 22, 1980, in St. Joseph, Michigan, the daughter of Diana (Machurick) Schmaltz and David Virgil Schmaltz. Darcie graduated from Lakeshore High School in Stevensville, MI and graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2002, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Language and Literature, and a minor in Moral and Ethical Philosophy. She pursued graduate studies in Creative Writing (Fiction) at George Mason University while working as an early childhood educator at the University Child Development Center.  Afterwards, she taught preschool at a private, NAEYC-Accredited, Quaker-based preschool, School for Friends, in Washington, DC. In addition to teaching young children, Darcie was an adult educator, serving as an adjunct instructor of Developmental English at Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) and an early childhood teacher-trainer for Foundations for Families in Alexandria, VA. For the last six years of her career, she filled various roles in the accreditation department at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children, where she was a strong advocate for quality education and care for all young children. During her freshman year of college, Darcie met her husband, Mark Vugrinovich, in Calculus class. They both became very studious Calculus students soon after meeting. After dating for five years, they married in St. Joseph, MI on September 9, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the day they first started “going steady.”   Darcie loved the outdoors, spending childhood summers on Lake Michigan beaches and her young adult life hiking in Shenendoah, VA. Her travels took her to places like Olympia National Park in Washington state; Yellowstone National Park in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho; the Grand Tetons in Wyoming; Point Reyes National Seashore in California; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Paris and the south of France; and Kauai, Hawaii. Darcie practiced vinyasa and Prana Flow yoga at Flow Yoga Center in DC, where she met many soulful teachers and a compassionate community of fellow yoga practitioners. She was an avid reader of literary fiction and spent many hours trying to master the art of short story writing. She was an active member of several breast cancer organizations, including the Young Survival Coalition, DC Metro Affiliate.  Darcie openly shared her personal experiences with breast cancer to create awareness about living with metastatic breast cancer as a young woman. She is survived by her husband, Mark Vugrinovich, of Arlington, Virginia; her parents, Diana (Machurick) Schmaltz and David Schmaltz of St. Joseph, MI; her sister, Dawn (Schmaltz) Hopkins of Frederick, MD; her niece and nephew, Micaela and Aiden Hopkins; her maternal grandmother, Donna (Conrad) Machurick; her paternal grandfather, Virgil Schmaltz; five aunts, three uncles, eleven cousins, and many more extended family and friends.   A Celebration of Life Service will be held 2:00 P.M., Saturday, August 16, 2014 at Starks & Menchinger Chapel and Cremation Service, 2650 Niles Rd., St. Joseph. Friends may visit from 1:00 P.M. until 2:00 P.M. Saturday at the funeral home. Those wishing to share a memory of Darcie online may do so at www.starks-menchinger.com.