SPOTLIGHT MIKE THUROW : Gents to exhibit model behavior
Posted on Sunday, October 5, 2008
SPRINGDALE — Mike Thurow’s late wife, Jan, battled a “nasty, aggressive” form of breast cancer that nothing could defeat.
Last October, she attended a fundraising fashion show with family and friends. Before the couple left their Fayetteville home, they spent two hours getting her bandages situated and finding an outfit that would fit over them.
The event was the last time Jan got out of the house before she died Nov. 12, at age 52.
The annual fashion show benefits H. O. P. E. Inc. (Helping Oncology Patients Excel ). Through Jan’s diagnosis and treatment, the Thurows were fortunate to have good health insurance and not need that organization’s services.
But that’s not the case for everyone.
“I realized as we were going through our ordeal how awful it would be if you were in a situation where you didn’t have the kind of support we had,” Thurow says.
The couple were married 29 years. Their son, Brandon, of Little Rock is a husband, father and third-year medical school student. Their daughter, Ryan, is a senior at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and plans to go to law school.
Thurow recently joined the board of directors for H. O. P. E., a nonprofit established in 2001 to assist cancer patients in a four-county region of Northwest Arkansas. Last year it assisted 1, 180 people.
H. O. P. E. provides financial aid for patients with limited means, as well as emotional support to patients and their families. It also promotes and helps administer cancer research through clinical trials.
The financial assistance includes helping patients receive lower-cost prescriptions and emergency cash of up to $ 800 for other expenses, like housing and transportation.
“It can bridge you over,” Thurow says.
H. O. P. E. screens patients as they come through Highlands Oncology, to determine their need. When Thurow took his wife for treatments, Highlands Oncology was full of patients, even after doubling the size of its center. A new facility is planned for Rogers.
“There’s a huge need,” he says.
Thurow, 51, is vice president of store systems for Springdalebased Harps Food Stores, where he’s worked for 25 years. As in the past, Harps is a sponsor of the fifth annual Bill Fleeman Gentlemen of Distinction Fashion Show and Award Dinner, planned for Friday at the John Q. Hammons Convention Center in Rogers.
Dick Trammel and Sach Oliver will emcee the live auction for the event, which has a “Fire and Ice” theme. Tickets are $ 100.
Many Harps employees have dealt with cancer, and the company decided to use some proceeds from its annual charity golf tournament to again support H. O. P. E., Thurow says.
The fashion show features local men modeling the latest fashions provided by SOHO Clothiers in Rogers. Models are Blake Evans, Derek Gibson, Roger Gildehaus, Scott Hancock, Dr. Tony Hui, Gerald Jordan, James Keenan, Art Morris, Jeff Schomburger, Patrick Woodruff and J. Max Van Hoose, vice president of store planning for Harps Food Stores.
Last year, Thurow also served as a model in the fashion show. He tried to think of a way to set himself apart on the runway. He bought some wheeled shoes, but then figured he’d fall on his rear. So, he taught himself to moonwalk.
That proved to be a hit with the crowd of 380.
“I found myself wishing I could keep the clothes,” Thurow says of last year’s show.
He particularly liked a leather jacket that fit perfectly. He even went to the store when it held a sale to see if he could find it. They no longer had his size.
The fashion show is not unlike his other public performances — he’s acted in plays on the Rogers Little Theater stage since 1992. He’s been in Camelot, Fiddler on the Roof and has twice played Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.
“Boy, I was terrible the first time, I thought,” he says.
He recently watched the DVD of this year’s performance, which was tolerable to him. Then, for curiosity’s sake, he watched the VHS tape of his first My Fair Lady show. “That was painful.” He’d actually forgotten some of the choreography, like him doing the tango with the actor playing Colonel Pickering.
Thurow’s nerves from the first time had calmed by this summer’s performance.
“Maybe this time around, it felt more familiar,” he says. More information on H. O. P. E. or the Gentlemen of Distinction fundraiser is available by calling Cyndi Bilyeu at (479 ) 571-4673.
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