Sharon Lamb wears many hats … entrepreneur, volunteer, philanthropist, wife, mother of six, grandmother, lover of children.
As a matter of fact, she and husband, Kevin Lamb - founders and owners of Little Rock-based Advanced Tissue - are known for their love for children ... and the work they do and contributions they make to better the lives of little ones, work inspired by their experiences with a son and grandson who were both born with serious illnesses.
Although these illnesses did not include Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, Lamb has joined her husband in putting shoulder to plow in Arkansas’ quest to help find a cure for the disease. For their efforts, the Lambs will be honored by the Greater Arkansas Chapter of the JDRF, formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, during its biggest fundraiser, the 2014 JDRF Imagine Gala on April 12.
“I thought” the tag line the organization has adopted - Type One to Type None -“was cool,” she says. “That’s their goal” - finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes through its support of research and of improving the lives of those affected by it.
“Of course, they’ve got lots of things they have to do to help these people until that happens. And there’s really some neat things that they’re developing until they find the cure for it.” These things, according to the website greaterarkansas.jdrf.org, include the development of artificial pancreas systems along with new ways to prevent, reverse or treat the complications of Type 1 diabetes.
Aside from those developments, Lamb wants to see people’s awareness raised. There are more adults being diagnosed with the disease, which typically occurs between infancy and the late 30s. (That’s why the organization rebranded itself just JDRF.) Eighty-five percent of those with the disease in the United States are adults, according to the national organization’s website, jdrf.org.
Lamb is all for helping raise not just awareness, but also money. She’s working with the gala’s Fund a Cure element, during which all attendees will be given the opportunity to donate to the agency on the spot and all toward diabetic research - no administrative costs.
According to a JDRF fact sheet, Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which one’s pancreas stops producing insulin due to an attack of the immune system on its beta (insulin-producing) cells. People who have Type 1 diabetes must inject insulin or take it through a pump.
“Part of the problem is that many who have it don’t realize they do,” Lamb says.
During the gala, Lamb and her husband will be lauded for their involvement with the JDRF chapter, supporting the Central Arkansas JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes (whose 2014 event takes place Sept. 20), as well as the Ride to Cure Diabetes (a destination cycling experience that takes place in six U.S. cities this summer and fall). The Lambs became presenting sponsors for the ride.
Sue Tull, executive director of the JDRF Greater Arkansas Chapter, has known Lamb for about 20 years and praises her as “one of the most genuine people,” as well as “one of the smartest women I know.” Tull cites Lamb’s ability to balance a keen business acumen with a willingness to dive into any charity project, despite her busyness.
“She’s wanted to know every aspect of the gala,” Tull says. “She has come to gala committee meetings. She has helped us with corporate sponsors. She has offered to help us with table and ticket sales.” LITTLE ROCK ROOTS
Lamb grew up with her brother and sister in Little Rock. A product of McDermott and Meadowcliff elementary schools, Henderson Junior High (now Middle School) and Pulaski Academy, she graduated from Hendrix College in Conway in 1981 with a degree in business with an emphasis in accounting.
Lamb initially wanted to be a medical technician. Sure enough, “I ended up in the medical industry,” she says. But first, she worked nearly 10 years for her father, a certified public accountant.
She met Kevin Lamb during her senior year in college when she went to a friend’s wedding in Memphis. “I had seen him before, when he had come to Hendrix visiting” their mutual friend, Sharon Lamb remembers. After meeting again at the wedding, the couple began seeing each other. Kevin Lamb was a cheerleader for Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis) at the time, but subsequently transferred to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“I guess it was nine months from the time we met that we were married” in 1982, she says.
They had their first child a week before their first wedding anniversary, and went on to have two other daughters and three sons. The Lamb offspring now range in age from 31 to 4 - firstborn Kali Evans, an advanced practice nurse for neurologist Dr.Brad Thomas in Little Rock; recording artist Cory Lamb; Amy Lamb, who works at Big Rock Apparel; Kelsey Lamb, a May candidate for graduation from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia; Justin Lamb, a freshman at Arkansas State University at Jonesboro; and Tyler Lamb, who’s in the K-3 program at Arkansas Baptist School.
It was 13 years ago that the Lambs began Advanced Tissue, which sends prescribed wound-care supplies directly to patients in personalized unit dose packages. Their customer base is largely made up of diabetes patients.
A stay-at-home mom at the time, “I told Kevin I’d help him out a little bit,” performing billing and various startup duties, Lamb remembers. She knew nothing of the industry but “I had to learn pretty quickly.
“Starting out small, there wasn’t a whole lot to do initially, so it wasn’t a big deal. But then I’ve ended up staying.” She now works full time with the company, which has gone from three to 125 employees and is represented in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Kevin Lamb handles the sales and marketing aspect.
“And I’m handling everything else” - inventory, billing, insurance, payroll, Sharon Lamb says. “I mainly do a lot of [information technology]. I help with developing our program to make sure that it includes all the different aspects that we need.”
And on the side she volunteers … something she was raised doing.
FAMILY CRISIS
It was the birth of her eldest son, Cory Lamb, that ushered Lamb into a longtime relationship with Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Cory was born prematurely and diagnosed with respiratory distress syndrome, one of the more common conditions suffered by premature babies. He was chosen for a study that weighed early intervention efforts, and remained in it through his teen years. Shortly afterward, the hospital auxiliary asked Lamb to volunteer.
Grateful to be given a chance to help, she volunteered in various capacities, working her way up to auxiliary president. She also served on the hospital board, twice chaired the auxiliary’s Arkansas a la Carte fundraiser, chaired the hospital’s black-tie Miracle Ball, and currently serves on the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation board.
“She’s completely committed to making things better for children,” says Fred Scarborough, president of the foundation. “She always begins a project by asking, ‘What is the desired outcome? What is it that we most need out of this?’ … Sharon stays focused on that outcome.”
He concurs with Tull when it comes to Lamb’s work ethic. “She really is quiet, she’s reserved, she’s very soft-spoken, but she’s tenacious. … She works and works and works until the goal’s achieved.”
After Cory’s experience, Children’s Hospital went on to serve Lamb’s family once again. Her first grandchild - Parker Evans, now 6 - was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which parts of the left side of the heart fail to develop completely. Parker had to have three surgeries for the condition. The hospital stepped in with a cardiovascular surgeon who specialized in a new kind of surgery that would put Parker on the road to wellness.
“He’s had his final surgery and is doing great,” Lamb says. “He has so much energy.”
By the way, her concern for others is not overshadowed by any personal crises, according to Scarborough. He has seen her in the waiting room of the cardiovascular unit, checking on the families of patients, and even providing them food, while her grandson was being treated. “Even in her most intense hour, she has the unique ability to ask what’s most wanted and needed by the people around her.”
Other organizations that have benefited from Lamb’s volunteer efforts include the Junior League of Little Rock, Centers for Youth and Families and the Arkansas Repertory Theatre board as well as the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, whose 1995 Symphony Designer House fundraiser she co-chaired.
Because of Parker, Lamb and her husband have also volunteered for the American Heart Association’s local affiliate, chairing its Open Your Heart campaign and doing Hearts on Wheels, a post-Heart Walk festival for children with congenital heart disease. “We were really excited about getting involved with that,” Sharon Lamb says.
In addition, she is chapter treasurer for the Downtown Rotary Club 99 and serves on its board, and performs various duties at Arkansas Baptist School as well as her church,First Baptist Little Rock.
Wanda Hoover, assistant dean for external relations at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock’s W.H. Bowen School of Law, has also known Lamb more than two decades, during which the two women have attended church together, served as fellow Arkansas Baptist School homeroom moms and Junior League provisionals, and served together on the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Guild board, Children’s Hospital Auxiliary and Rotary Club.
“I don’t think you’d get a better friend than Sharon Lamb,” Hoover says. She’s smart and “passionate about her faith, her family and her commitment to community. She’s one of the most generous and humble people that you will ever meet,” as well as a dedicated worker.
“Sharon’s going to commit the time and the financial resources for anything she’s passionate about, and … she lives her life with purpose and godliness.”
ALL FOR THE CAUSE
Lamb’s purpose with JDRF goes back to its start in 1998. Lamb was in Junior League with, and friends with, the JDRF chapter’s founders, whose children had Type 1 diabetes. Her involvement with the agency in its early years gave way to other matters, but was renewed five years ago.
“It’s amazing just how many people’s children have Type 1 diabetes that I didn’t realize,” Lamb says, noting that there are quite a few children with the disease at her son’s school, as well as an employee at Advanced Tissue. There, fortunately, support of JDRF is company wide. Agency board members include the company’s chief financial officer and the husband of the human resources director. And there have been JDRF events held at the office.
In addition to helping find a cure for Type 1 diabetes, Lamb, through her Rotary Club work, is helping in the quest to eradicate polio in the world. “They’re really really close to stopping that in children,” she says.
The Lamb line continues to grow. Son Cory and his wife are expecting their first child, and Sharon Lamb’s own mothering isn’t nearly over.
Needless to say, the welfare of little ones will continue to be a high priority in her life.
SELF PORTRAIT
Sharon Lamb
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: June 1, 1959, Little Rock
FANTASY DINNER GUESTS: Jesus, my husband and my mom
ADVICE I RECENTLY GAVE ONE OF MY CHILDREN: Dream big and you can do anything.
WHAT MY HUSBAND DOESN’T KNOW: On my phone, his ring tone is [the theme song for] the Grinch. I love the Grinch, and it makes me smile.
THE LAST BOOK I READ IS Heaven Is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent.
MY GUILTY PLEASURE: Ice cream and The Blacklist
PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO KNOW I am a crafter.
THE BEST VACATION DESTINATION is Give Kids the World in Kissimmee, Fla. (a 70-acre “storybook” resort where children with life-threatening illnesses are treated to free, week-long fantasy vacations).
ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Organized Presented by the BKD Foundation and Lisenne Rockefeller and family, the Imagine Gala is expected to draw nearly 600 to the ballroom of the Little Rock Marriott from 6-11 p.m. April 12. Kristin and Mark Hodge are co-chairing the event, for which Kevin Kelly, news anchor for KLRT-TV, Channel 16, will serve as master of ceremonies. As co-founders and owners of Advanced Tissue, the Lambs will accept the agency’s Living & Giving Award.Tickets are $200 each. For more information, call the JDRF office at (501) 217-0321.
High Profile, Pages 37 on 03/30/2014