Rachel Schwolow always returned to Provincetown: foundation will honor drowning victim

EDITOR'S NOTE: Changes were made to this story on Aug. 18, 2022, to correct the spelling of two names. 

PROVINCETOWN — She traveled the world, but Provincetown always called Rachel Schwolow back home.

"She was a force," said Peter Sullivan, a close friend and general manager of Land's End Inn. "She's gone too soon."

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On July 4, 2022, Rachel, 50, drowned early in the morning in Provincetown Harbor. Her death has left a hole in the Provincetown community, said Bob Keary, Sullivan's husband and a close friend.

Friends, family launch foundation

After her unexpected passing, Rachel's friends and family teamed up to create the Rachel Schwolow Foundation, which aims to provide an arts and crafts table with supplies for children at the Provincetown Public Library; a sports scholarship for girls at Nauset High School; affordable housing assistance for local Provincetown hospitality workers; and a waterfront bench in her name.

Rachel was born in Iserlohn, Germany, but moved to Cape Cod when her parents bought the North Truro restaurant, the Mediterranean, where she got her first taste of a hospitality lifestyle.

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She lived and worked all over the world, first with the United Nations in Vienna then pivoting to food service after graduating from the Culinary Institute of American in New York.

Hospitality would become her life's work and she made her mark everywhere from the prestigious Little Knell in Aspen, Colorado to Boston-based restaurant Icarus.

Worked at several Provincetown restaurants

Throughout her worldwide travels, Rachel still managed to spend many summers working and living in Provincetown, and was a mainstay staff member in several restaurants throughout town, including Bubula's, Cafe Heaven, Local 186 and the Red Inn.

"She worked in so many places in this town, she knows so many people and she knows the problems that come from working everywhere," her mother Angelika Buhndorf said.

On the day of her passing, Keary said a group of friends got together and decided to try to raise money to build a bench in her honor.

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"We raised enough to buy the bench in one day," he said. "We realized that there were so many people who loved her, and we were easily going to raise more than what it would take to build a bench. So we thought, what would she want us to do with the money?"

Keary spoke with a friend who runs a nonprofit, who suggested they think big about the money they were raising.

Advocate for women's sports

"We said, what about a scholarship for a girl athlete in high school, something like $1,000 a year, and our friend said think bigger, what about $5,000 a year?" Keary said. "The ideas just got bigger and bigger and we said, let’s just do as much as we can in her name."

Rachel was a talented field hockey player who went to two Olympic festivals for Team USA, coached girls field hockey at Provincetown High School and was an advocate for women's sports, her mother said.

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She also deeply loved Provincetown and was a lifelong food service worker in town, a focal point of the foundation's goals.

"Rachel was always concerned with lots of issues here in Provincetown," Angelika said. "Especially this summer, I can see how ridiculously expensive it is. There’s so much money coming in from big real estate companies buying up specific lots or corners, and a lot of the old houses are gone. The housing issue was a big thing to her heart."

As someone who lived and worked all over the world, Rachel was well-acquainted with the housing crisis on Cape Cod, especially for service workers in Provincetown.

Her home always open

For 12 years she rented a five-bedroom house at 560 Commercial St., Angelika said, and her door was always open to anyone who needed a place to stay.

"If anyone was in need or struggling in any way, she was the first one to show up," Sullivan said.

"If somebody got kicked out of their apartment or lost their job, they had a place at 560 (Commercial St.) to stay until they figured it out," Keary added.

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In the same way Rachel never failed to support fellow food service workers, the foundation hopes to provide similar assistance for those working in Provincetown and struggling to make ends meet.

The foundation also combined two of her other joys in life — the Provincetown Public Library and arts and crafts — to its fundraising goals.

"Rachel really loved the library in Provincetown, she went there so often," Angelika said. "It has this nice children’s section on the second floor and Rachel was really into arts and crafts."

About a week before she died, Rachel had reached out to local woodworker Nate McKean to build her an arts and crafts table for her new Provincetown apartment.

Although McKean wasn't able to build the table for Rachel, Angelika said she has been in touch with him and he offered to make the table so that the foundation could then donate it to the library, along with providing arts and crafts supplies regularly.

Bench will mark a favorite haunt

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As for the waterfront bench, they plan to build the bench on Pilgrim Pond Road in Truro, one of Rachel's favorite childhood spots, her mother said.

"There’s this rock with a plaque where it says the Pilgrims came to Provincetown first, not Plymouth, that they had gotten fresh water there from the pond," Angelika said. "She was really proud of that that they went to Provincetown first. She used to go there after school all the time."

Amy Rogers of Truro, one of Rachel's childhood friends, remembered the many secret spots her friend would take her to growing up — like the rock on Pilgrim Pond Road — and how her adventurous spirit never wavered, even as an adult.

"One thing about Rachel is that when she would leave, she would always come back and always made sure she had time for me, and take me to do things," Rogers said. "She loved glitter, but I feel like she is the glitter. That’s the only way I can describe it."

For Keary and Sullivan, Rachel's legacy is one of kindness, generosity, vivaciousness and adventure.

"She truly was a leader," Sullivan said.

"Because of the seasonal nature of what we do here, I sometimes think of Provincetown as a TV show," Keary said. "And it’s like a main character died. She was a main character in my life. It’s a big loss."

To donate to the Rachel Schwolow Foundation, visit their GoFundMe page: gofundme.com/f/rachel-schwolow-foundation.

Sarah Carlon can be reached at: scarlon@capecodonline.com or on Twitter: @sarcarlon

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Provincetown foundation to honor drowning victim with scholarship