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As insulin prices continue to increase, the impact on diabetes patients across the country and in Mississippi is leaving some families wondering how they’re going to keep paying for the lifesaving medication.
Dustin Barnes/The Clarion-Ledger

Mollie Jane Rhoads, newly diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, will be walking the runway in the 14th Annual Ultimate Fashion Show that helps raise money for the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi’s Camp Kandu for kids like Mollie.(Photo: Special to the Clarion Ledger)

Every year for more than a decade, Marcie Robertson has worked to blend spring and summer fashion collections, a Honda car raffle and fundraising to help kids with diabetes attend a camp to learn there is nothing they can’t do.

Camp Kandu at Twin Lakes campgrounds near Florence is for children with Type I diabetes where they learn they are not alone. They share stories that others with diabetes can understand.

The fundraising event that Robertson has led with her winning recipe has provided the money to make that camp possible.

From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday at the Country Club of Jackson, Robertson will chair the 14th annual Ultimate Fashion Show sponsored by the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi. The event is a labor of love for her that goes beyond her passion for fashion. She has a personal interest in supporting the foundation’s mission of preventing diabetes and its associated complications and improving the lives of all those touched by the disease.

Robertson received her bachelor’s degree in dance and French and a master’s in exercise physiology/cardiac rehab from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She also attended the University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg, France, where she completed a UAB International Studies Program.

When she returned to the U.S., Robertson began working in cardiac rehabilitation with patients who had diabetes, along with her cardiac patients. Things took a more personal note after her mother was diagnosed with diabetes.

“I knew that diabetes required daily management, but after my mother was diagnosed, I realized it is like having a full-time job,” she said. “Diabetes is 24/7. There is no vacation from it. I’m thankful that with new technology and medications plus an emphasis on healthy eating and exercise, adults and children can stay in better control and reduce the chances of the complications from diabetes.”

Robertson’s personal connection to the foundation’s mission is shared by another key player in the DFM’s Ultimate Fashion Show — Artistic Director Trish Windham.

Windham has also been involved with the fashion show for over 10 years. She worked on local fashion shows with the former Gayfer’s Department store and the Gayfer Girls. She also spent 10 years at Gayfer’s working as a fashion director and wardrobe consultant.

Diabetes runs in her family, too. Her grandmother and great-grandmother both lived with the disease. Some of the teens she worked with in the Gayfer Girls had Type 1 diabetes, and she recalls helping them after they had an episode of high or low blood glucose.

Windham’s granddaughter, Rainey, has modeled in the fashion show ever since she could walk, and like her grandmother, Rainey has developed a passion for tennis. She is taking lessons with a young friend, Mollie Jane Rhoads, who has Type 1 diabetes.

“I’m so impressed by the work of the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi especially when I see Rainey’s little friend playing tennis like a champion!” Windham said. “Mollie Jane and the other (Camp) Kandu kids who model in the Ultimate Fashion Show never let diabetes stand in their way. They give the term ‘can-do’ new meaning.”

Men and women also will be on the fashion runway.

It’s metro Jackson’s preview of the latest prêt-à-porter collections for spring and summer.

Robertson reflected on her more recent career at Ballet Magnificat’s School of the Arts where she has been a ballet instructor and choreographer 21 years and counting. “I have grown up on stage and love anything lights, stage and music,” she said. “I also love keeping up with the latest trends and being fashion forward so the fashion show is a great fit!”

In addition to the fashion show, DFM volunteer stalwarts Nancy Luke Carpenter of Columbus and Susan Murphy of Jackson will receive the 2018 “Women of Excellence” award.

Carpenter, who graduated from Mississippi State University in the early 1970s, has served the state. in the banking and business community, in support of public schools in Jackson and Columbus, and in churches and philanthropic outlets like the Diabetes Foundation. Murphy is a full-time volunteer.

The fashion show will include a live drawing for the annual Patty Peck Honda “Car 4 a Cure” raffle. WLBT anchor, Maggie Wade, will emcee the event, and Kim Allen of Miss 103 will draw for door prizes between scenes.

Related: Diabetes spikes among Mississippi children and no one knows why

More: Are you at risk of developing diabetes? You’d be one of 700,000 Mississippians

If you go

What: The Ultimate Fashion Show and Champagne Brunch

When: 11 am -1 p.m. April 19

Where: Country Club of Jackson, 345 St. Andrew’s Drive, Jackson

Details: Call 601-957-7878 or visit www.msdiabetes.org

All proceeds stay in Mississippi to benefit the children’s programs of the Diabetes Foundation of Mississippi including Camp Kandu.

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