If you were flying low over the Collier County elementary schools, you might think you were skimming a rain forest. Looming above each playground is what first seems a dark green arboreal canopy - the leaves of some giant baobab tree, perhaps. Under its eight massive triangular fronds, virtually the entire playground is sheltered from the merciless Florida sun. But it's not a tropical tree, it's an elegant shade structure. Its kite-shaped plastic panels, stretched side by side in a circle above the playground, block 95 percent of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays.

There are 22 such colossal sun shades now, one for every elementary school in Naples, Florida. They came to fruition mainly because of a relentlessly committed, persistent mother, Teryl Brzeski.

What led Teryl to spearhead this $2 million project, and countless other sun safety promotions, began with her own body in 1986. That's when a melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, was found on her arm. "Fortunately we caught it early enough so that I haven't had a recurrence," she says. She has, however, had other skin cancers and precancers, and knows why. "Growing up, I used baby oil and aluminum foil to tan, damaging my skin," she remembers. "You get smarter once you have skin cancer."

Then, standing with her youngest daughter on her kindergarten playground at Sea Gate Elementary School, she realized "there wasn't one ounce of shade." Knowing her genetic predisposition to melanoma, she feared for her daughter. So she got busy. She banded with other parents who had been trying for years to get shade protection, and convinced them to go beyond the school. "I told them we had to make it a county-wide issue," she recalls. "We had to go to the school board."

For two years they did research and legwork, contacting physicians and health groups, gathering facts showing the link between childhood sun exposure and skin cancer, and gradually getting school officials' attention. "Finally, two dermatologists, an American Cancer Society representative, and I gave a presentation to the school board," she says. The board promptly allocated $2.1 million to shade two outdoor play areas at every elementary school in the county. Nine months later, the structures started going up, beginning at Sea Gate.

Flush with success, Brzeski now sponsors a variety of projects such as Walk-a-Thons promoting wide-brimmed hats and other types of sun protection. She's helped influence the school system to plant shade trees. And there's plenty left to do. "There are basketball courts uncovered," she says. "And the middle schools don't have shade. UV just hasn't been given its due nationwide as a hazard to our children. Shade areas should be part of the building codes for every school and park system in the country."