Outsider’s Truck Show raising awareness for Lowe’s Syndrome

Truck operator Thomas Sullivan has a special reason for attending the Outsider’s Truck Show at the Neshoba County Coliseum in October. 

“I’ll be bringing my truck, which is decorated to bring awareness to an extremely rare disease known as Lowe’s Syndrome,” said Thomas Sullivan, whose son, Waylon, has the disease. 

According to Sullivan, Lowe’s Syndrome is a very complex disability, including missing a link on the X chromosome, and it heavily affects eyesight and muscle development. 

“It was heartbreaking for my wife and I when we found out Waylon had this disease, but now after having him in our lives for around 20 months, we wouldn’t trade him for anything,” he said. “We love him more than anything and he’s a happy baby.”

Sullivan said he’s excited and nervous for the show, and hopes his truck will help people learn more about the disease since it’s so rare. Its rarity is what inspired him to spread awareness. 

“We’ll have a table set up in front of my truck. It has 196 names of little boys from all over the world on pairs of glasses that have Lowe’s Syndrome. There’s less than 1,000 total cases of it worldwide, only one out of 500,000 people get it. It also only affects males.”

Tommy Jernigan, president of Outsiders Truck Show, is excited for the show and will be making a donation to the Sullivan family for Lowe’s Syndrome Awareness. 

“For this show, it’s mainly local working class trucks. We shine them up and get out there to have some fun,” Jernigan said. “We do some judging on it and give out some plaques to the ones that win, along with our donation to the Sullivans.” 

Jernigan noted this is the second year of the truck show, and the event was held in the Louisville Coliseum in 2019. 

“We’re expecting a lot more attendees this year. It’ll be mostly outside so COVID won’t be much of an issue,” he said. “I think people are really interested in trucks and want to know more about them. I enjoy trucks and I was raised around them. It’ll be a fun family event.” 

Jernigan said even if someone doesn’t know much about trucks, they should come give the show a shot. 

“Just come and look at the trucks. I have kids and grandkids like anyone else and we’re out here making an honest living,” he said. “We want to let people come out and enjoy what we enjoy when it comes to work.” 

Mitchell Madison, a truck driver participating in the Outsiders Truck Show, is looking forward to the event since he took part in last year’s show and won second place. 

“Last year we just wanted to do a show, and I think this year it’s going to be triple the size of what it was last time,” Madison said. “A lot of people are coming and going through town and they’ll see this show and want to come check it out.” 

Madison said he and the other drivers take pride in their trucks and want to show them off to the public. 

“We hope this year that it’ll be something really big,” he said. “We’ll have vendors and stuff for the kids, and a parade of the trucks that participated after the show.”

Since Mitchell has been around trucks all his life, this show is right up his alley. 

“I’ve been with trucks all my life. Even when I was a little kid, all I wanted to do was drive a truck,” he said. “I’m very excited.”

The Outsiders Truck Show will be in the Neshoba County Coliseum on Saturday, Oct. 24 from 11a.m. to 8 p.m. The entry fee for trucks is $25. Visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OutsidersTruckShow/.