This Thursday, support the fight against juvenile diabetes by shopping for designer dresses at the Frocktail Party in the penthouse at the Burroughes Lofts at Queen and Bathurst.

Back in high school, I recall nervously sitting at a desk in the giant assembly hall tackling my dreaded Physics exam. The desks were in meticulous rows and nearly two hundred girls sat in silence, every once in a while gazing up at the clock or raising a hand for a chaperoned trip to the loo. I remember looking back at Vanessa Oliver, she was drinking orange juice. I thought it wasn’t fair that she could drink juice and I couldn’t. What a naive little twit I was.

Vanessa has had juvenile diabetes since she could walk, but you really would not have known as in high school she was a vivacious student who participated on the rowing team for years. “On the outside – you can look like the most healthy and normal person but it’s a twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year kind of thing,” she says, “It’s always on your mind and always weighs on your shoulders.”

The entire Oliver family is highly involved with the RIDE for Diabetes Research fundraiser, which Vanessa has collectively raised over one million dollars for alongside her real estate team, but younger sister Jessica wanted to do something special that would engage her peers. “Every couple of weeks my friends and I meet for sushi, drink wine, gossip and have fun. I thought – why don’t we try to do something positive with the time that we are spending hanging out together and actually do something?” Thus the committee was formed.

Jess hatched the brilliant idea of a dress swap, “…we’ve all been going to so many weddings and everyone was wearing the same dress – you wear it twice and then you don’t wear it again because everyone has seen it,” – very true and totally annoying. With the help of fashion savvy friends, the dress swap quickly turned into a terrific combination of donated haute new and preloved frocks which will culminate on Thursday in the form of a silent auction with over sixty dresses! Designer dresses include Greta Constantine and Betsey Johnson while friends and supporters have donated everything from Dolce and Gabbana to Diane Von Furstenberg, Marc Jacobs and more.

It will be an amazing night, but Jessica reminds us that there is still no cure and relays with a teary voice, “Vanessa is my big sister. My whole family, we look out for each other – for everything. Raising money for juvenile diabetes is the one thing our family has gotten behind as a way of showing Vanessa that we care and trying to fight against this illness that you can’t control.”

Support the sisters and join the celebration this Thursday night. Tickets are $40 and can be purchased by going to thefrocktailparty.com. Have some drinks, run into old friends and leave with a killer dress – and all while contributing to a deserving cause.