Meet Brenda Sommers, a real-life Fancy Nancy with an LSU twist

Every Friday during LSU football season, Brenda Sommers adorns herself from head to toe in a handmade purple and gold costume to show support for the Tigers. From her detailed Cleopatra-style headdress down to the ribbons hot-glued onto her high heels, she elicits positive emotions from everyone around her. When you see her fan ‘fits, you can’t help but smile and say, “Geaux Tigers!”

Sommers’ process for making the outfits–which include headpieces, curated jewelry, hosiery and customized shoes–might appear to be grandiose, but it’s actually just a fun Sunday afternoon activity for this insurance professional. “It’s more of a stress reliever for me,” Sommers says. “I want to treat it as something that is just plain fun and enjoyable. I could get lost in this for hours.”

But there’s also a bigger-picture meaning to Sommers’ styles. Since LSU football plays 12 regular-season games, Sommers takes a picture of herself wearing 12 different eccentric costumes and creates a calendar that she sells. All the profits are put back into the school through the Waymakers Foundation, an organization she founded in 2022.

Sommers’ LSU spirit is intoxicating, and she appears to be a real-life Fancy Nancy as she displays her diehard passion for the university. But her love and appreciation for the school runs deeper than football. While Sommers herself is not a graduate of LSU, nor did she attend a single class on campus, she is the proud single mother of Allison Sommers, who graduated with honors from LSU in 2019 with a degree in agricultural education.

During Allison’s four years at LSU, Sommers sat on the Board of Directors for the LSU Food Pantry, served as a sitting council member for the LSU Family Association, and volunteered as often as she could. “I did this whole journey as a parent by myself, and it’s hard,” Sommers says. “LSU knows this and has realized that in most cases, it takes the student and the parent to make it happen here.”

About a year before Allison graduated, a professor asked Sommers what she wanted her own legacy to be at LSU. “I immediately went, ‘Well, how much would that cost?’” Sommers says.

Earlier that year, Sommers wasn’t sure how she would cover the final amount of Allison’s tuition when, out of the blue, Allison received a small scholarship that helped Sommers take that extra step.

“I’ll never be the parent who can bring a million dollars to this campus and build a building or anything like that,” Sommers says. “But there’s got to be people out there like me that just need that little push over the edge, over the line, so they can have breathing room.”

Sommers started the Waymakers Foundation for that very reason. She personally matches the money made from her calendar sales and then donates the doubled amount to the College of Agriculture Dean’s Excellence Fund. “It’s a good way to say, ‘This is where I came from as a mom, and this is how much I love LSU for what it did for my daughter,’” Sommers says.

In addition to this donation, she volunteers and raises money for the LSU Olinde Career Center, the LSU Food Pantry and the university’s Parent and Family Programs. Sommers even spent part of her summer in 2023 hand-tagging bags of clothes donated to the Tailored Tiger, the career center’s free professional clothes closet for students.

When she’s not volunteering, her day job is in insurance, where her passion for helping people shines through. Sommers celebrated 10 years working with the same company by hosting a food drive to benefit the LSU Food Pantry.

“[The company executives] asked what I wanted, and I said instead of a fancy watch or Yeti cooler, I’d like to hold a food drive for the LSU Food Pantry,” Sommers says.

It’s rare to find someone who wants to give so much without expecting anything in return. Sommers’ daughter Allison says she’s proud of how her mom is unabashedly herself and that Sommers was able to get a college experience, no matter how unconventional it was.

“What’s really cool about her experience is that she’s gotten to forge her own path in secondary education,” Allison says. “It’s not necessarily pursuing education, but it’s being involved and being part of the experience.”

Allison said her mom would show up for any service or volunteer project on campus, including making sausage in J.B. Francioni Hall. It’s one of their favorite volunteer stories to tell people. “She doesn’t ask for the spotlight,” Allison says. “And that’s why I’m so happy she’s getting recognition like this.”

Meanwhile, Sommers continues to create unique outfits for each occasion, professing that she doesn’t like to wear any look twice. She knows it’s a funny thing and pokes fun at herself, because everything is always so serious, but costumes don’t have to be. “I look at myself and go, ‘Brenda, you are so fabulous,’” she says, “and I have the best time.”