This Saturday is the  8th annual Britanny Wilkinson United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (UMDF) Fundraising Dinner. (KMPH FOX 26 Great Day's Kim Stephens is the night's MC.)

All are invited to this evening at Break the Barriers at 6pm. Tickets are $25 each. There is always an amazing raffle, beautiful silent auction, delicious dinner and special program learning about Brittany and the disease she lived with - a disease few still know about but 1 in every 200 people has a genetic mutation that may lead to mitochondrial disease. 

Mitochondria are in all our bodies, in our cells giving us energy. For those living with mitochondrial disease, which is genetic, that mitochondria doesn’t work right affecting the body in very painful ways.

Clovis East graduate, Brittany Wilkinson lived with this all her 18 years. Amidst her migraines and other debilitating pain, she gracefully raised awareness and funds for others living with this disease.

Professional actors, directors and producers who have all recently filmed in Tulare County shared their advice with 400 students who were invited to attend the free lecture.

The presenters included Karin Schneider & Lauren Fitzgerald, the writers and producers of “RIPE.” It is a small-budget film written and produced by two women who attended local high schools and who have both pursued careers in the film industry. Students learned how they developed their story, crowd-sourced the funding to make their movie, and are now using film festivals to market RIPE.

Ian & Eshom Nelms, who wrote and directed “Lost on Purpose,” also met with students.

The Nelms brothers grew up in Woodlake and went to high school in Visalia.

After college they ended up in Santa Monica, scrambling to turn their dream of writing, directing and producing movies into a reality.