Kirkwood Mom Brings On the Cure

(Editor's note: This story has been altered to correct spelling errors and to reflect the name of the organization: JDRF-Improving Lives. Curing Type 1 Diabetes. Story updated at 12:20 p.m.)

A Kirkwood mother-daughter duo is helping to put on a fundraiser to find a cure for type 1 diabetes featuring members of the cast of the nationally-touring show Bring It On: The Musical.

Cindy Patton and her daughter Stephanie, a junior at St. Joseph’s Academy, say they are ready to do whatever is needed to hit the $30,000 goal for the organization JDRF — Improving lives. Curing Type 1 Diabetes., at April’s Bring On the Cure fundraiser.

“They say, ‘Can you do this?’ and I say, ‘Sure, if it’s going to help find a cure, I’m there with bells on,” Cindy Patton said.

So far, Patton has helped book the Sheldon Concert Hall, which is “one of the best venues in the world” for musical performances, said JDRF’s executive director Marie Davis. The venue should be perfect for the musical, dance and improvisational performances members of the cast and crew of Bring It On are planning.

“They’ll get to do fun things, out of the ordinary,” Patton said. While the cast won’t be able to perform scenes from the touring show—which opens at The Fabulous Fox Theater on March 27—they’ll still be performing “whatever their forte is,” Patton said.

Patton has an in-house expert to guide her as she helps organize the musical fundraiser. Her daughter Stephanie is a talented singer, dancer and performer who spends her summers at The Muny and her spare time researching musical theater programs at colleges around the country.

Stephanie also has diabetes. Doctors diagnosed her with type 1, or insulin-dependent diabetes on her fifth birthday.

“All I really remember is that it was very traumatic having to be in the hospital on my birthday,” Stephanie remembers about her diagnosis 12 years ago. Stephanie had wanted to visit the Butterfly House in Chesterfield for her birthday. Instead, nurses brought her a Barbie doll as a present while she stayed in the hospital. “I remember being pricked with needles all the time.”

Cindy calls her daughter’s diagnosis “the beginning of our story.”

“I just remember having this sinking feeling like, ‘Oh my goodness, what are we going to do,’” she said. “A lot of people will say, ‘Well it could be worse,’ and you want to say, ‘This is 24/7. You can’t take a vacation.’” 

Since then, Stephanie has learned to work around her diabetes to live the “hectic high schooler’s life that I’m living,” she said.

And as Stephanie learns how to manage her diabetes, her mother Cindy is throwing herself into mentoring, volunteering, organizing and more for the JDRF. Patton said her family instilled in her the value of volunteering at a young age.

“My family always gave back in anything they did,” Cindy said. “It was always important. You give to the church. You do what you can for other people.”

For now, Cindy’s energies and efforts are directed at making mailing lists, finding auction items and preparing for Bring On the Cure. Cindy calls herself a “jack-of-all-trades,” picking up the slack wherever she finds it.

“I just feel like I’m doing what I can to help get closer to a cure—anything we could do to get a cure,” she said.

Stephanie said she plans to be with her mom at the fundraiser as a fellow jack-of-all-trades, pitching in alongside her mom.

“My mom is my everything to me,” Stephanie said. “She is my best friend in life and my biggest role model.”

Bring On the Cure starts at 7 p.m. April 2 at the Sheldon Concert Hall. Tickets cost $25, $60 or $100. For more information, call 314-729-1846 or log on to the JDRF website’s Bring On The Cure page.