Other articles by Rosalie Robles Crowe:

Tinker with traditionTres times as goodWhip up gourmet appetizersService with a styleGlorious gourds: Pumpkins Discovering native squash Donate pet food, adopt a kitty Do-it-yourself dry mixesHomemade desserts were daily traditionComforting cuisine

Construction
Komatsu Equipment Co
Mechanic General
CORT
WAREHOUSE/DRIVER General
CORT
Warehouse Supervisor Health Care
Rio Salado College
PA's/Online Instructors Education
Assessment Technology, Inc
Social Studies Content Writer

Some "really neat kids" will be modeling designer clothing Saturday at The Fashion Show benefiting Tu Nidito Children and Family Services.

Sponsored for the third year by the Tucson Ladies Council, The Fashion Show will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort, 7000 N. Resort Drive.

The kids — 11 of them — will be dressed by The Stork's Nest of the Old Pueblo and noted designers whose lines the store carries.

Their outfits, including five from Luna Luna Copenhagen, designed by Heidi Maria Schwarck, have been donated to the show and to the children to keep, said Susan Luedtke, owner of The Stork's Nest.

Other designers donating outfits include Enchanted Enfant and The Tea Collection. Local designer Cari Lupo, whose company is Lupo's Lullabies, is providing handmade crystal sandals for the girls.

While the children — Tu Nidito clients and some of their siblings — are the stars of the evening, the show also will feature men's and women's styles from 18 Tucson boutiques worn by models from Agency Arizona in Phoenix.

Before the show, guests can "ooh and aah" over new automobile models from Precision Toyota, Jim Click Automotive Team, Chapman Mercedes-Benz, Watson Chevrolet and Royal Automotive.

There also will be a live and silent auction of items from such companies as Tiffany & Co., Louis Vuitton and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Four couture outfits worn by actress Sharon Stone and designed by top names in the fashion world are being auctioned on eBay to benefit Tu Nidito.

Tickets for The Fashion Show are $125 each, $90 of which is tax-deductible. They are available at www.tunidito.org or by calling 322-9155.

Last year's event grossed $180,000 for Tu Nidito, providing about 22 percent of the agency's 2006 annual budget of $814,755.

Becky Swivel, Tu Nidito development associate, said that annually "more than 90 percent of the budget goes directly to helping seriously ill children and their families."

A brave little princess will attend the show

Watch for 6-year-old model Karlee Miller at The Fashion Show for Tu Nidito Children and Family Services on Saturday at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort.

She's the one wearing a pink headband decorated with silk flowers and sequins. She'll have on a dreamy fairy garden dress with green ruffles and matching pantaloon peeking from beneath the dress hem on her only leg, the right one.

Karlee looks like an elfin princess in the outfit — which is appropriate because she loves all things princess. You'd get a better idea of how big she is on "princessy" things if you could see her prosthetic leg. The silicone socket that fits over the stump of her left leg and up to her hip is laminated with Cinderella and her fellow Disney princesses.

Karlee is growing so much that this is the third leg she has been given since her diagnosis in mid-December 2006 with rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue tumor, in the calf muscle of her leg. She isn't using the prosthetic leg right now because the bone has grown and adjustments must be made. But when she does use it, its color matches her good leg, and her mom, Tammie, painted the toenails for her.

It has been a rough year for Karlee, her two sisters (Kayla, 11, and Savannah, 1), her mom and her dad, Steve Miller.

First there was the diagnosis before Christmas. Then there was all the pain Karlee suffered through Christmas because the tumor was so big that it was cutting off the blood supply to her leg, Steve Miller said.

In March, her leg was amputated two inches above the knee, something that Karlee had a hard time dealing with.

"We told her that in order to save her life so she could stay with Mommy and Daddy, they were going to have to take her leg," Miller said.

"Will I get my leg back?" she wanted to know.

She also has had to deal with losing all her hair because of the chemotherapy.

"It was hard at first," her dad said.

"But she's so strong" that now she explains to anyone who asks about it.

Hard as it has been for Karlee, it's been no picnic for the rest of the family, either.

Steve had to quit his job as a corrections officer at the Pima County Jail because of all the care Karlee needs, and Tammie, a respiratory therapist, can only work part time.

Still, "we've learned to look beyond it — you have to," Steve said.

He recently completed training as an emergency medical technician — with all that he has learned caring for his daughter, he figured it would be good to be able to offer care to others in need, too — and his wife is planning to become a pediatric oncology nurse.

And how do they do that? How do they look forward and not become mired in the problems of the present?

"We can look to Karlee," Steve said. "If she can deal with it, anyone else can deal with it."