Q: Who are The Pump Girls?
A: The Pump Girls are a pop singing group consisting of 3 teen girls all of whom have Type 1 insulin dependent diabetes. Not only do they sing and dance they all wear insulin pumps!
Q: No really…WHO are The Pump Girls?
A: The Pump Girls consist of: Heather Faland (14), Debbie Lemus (15), and Brittany Rausch (17)…wait we can hear your next question already, YES there have been other Pump Girls, Brittany is the only remaining “original” member. Past Pump Girls include: Colleen Cottrell, Sara Cronstadt, Janelle Munion, Sarah Ann Carey, and Nicole Kukaruda.
Q: What are they singing about?
A: The Pump Girls sing about boys, love, dancing, boys oh and a little bit of life with diabetes.
Q: What does the word “pump” in their name The Pump Girls mean?
A: The word “pump” in the group’s name refers to the pager-sized insulin pump they wear which administers insulin to their systems
Q: How and when was the group formed?
A: The Pump Girls were formed unofficially in 1998, The Spice Girls were the rage at the time, so Brittany and her mom decided to write a song in celebration of her new insulin pump. A few months later Brittany and her family attended a diabetes family retreat where Brittany and her mom decided to teach a group of 11 and 12 year old girls their new Pump Girl song to perform as a skit. Little did they know there would become a demand for the Pump Girls to perform at other venues, but wait there was no “group”, a group had to be formed, thus the beginning of The Pump Girls.
Q: Tell us more about the CD
A: The CD came about when HB Barnum came on board to rewrite the music to the Pump Girls original song. Barnum fell in love with the girls and their “natural girlish charm” and before you can say The Pump Girls they were in the studio recording a CD.
Q: Wait a minute who is HB Barnum?
A: Legendary producer/arranger/conductor for Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, The Jackson 5, Frank Sinatra and just about everybody in the music business.
Q: So have The Pump Girls recorded any other CD’s?
A: They recorded a single entitled A1C in 2001. A1C refers to a medical test Type1 diabetics take to monitor their condition. The results of a hemoglobin A1C test reveal how effectively a person is managing their disease.
Q: Where have The Pump Girls performed?
A: The Pump Girls have performed at hundreds of different events over the years. Their largest audience was 8,000 at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis and their smallest was at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas for those that were well enough to make it down to the recreation room one rainy Sunday afternoon. They have opened for Bob Dole and performed at Downtown Disney. Most fun for the girls was the time they performed for the TV show “Two Hour Tour” which was shown on the Disney Channel, maybe it was the time they performed at the Friars Club for Cedars Sinai Monty Hall Tennis Tournament in Los Angeles with Milton Berle in attendance, of course the girls had to be told who Milton Berle was! They have performed many times for the ADA’s (American Diabetes Association) international convention the AADE (American Association of Diabetes Educators) national convention, Children with Diabetes international conferences. They have performed many times for Radio Disney including their millennium concert in New York. Each summer the girls take a diabetes camp tour, when they tour across the United States performing for many different diabetes camps.