POCATELLO — Each year, during its Juvenile Diabetes Camp, Portneuf Medical Center brings in a speaker to help inspire the youth attending the day-long educational event.

This year’s speaker was of such note, however, that the hospital has reserved the Jensen Grand Hall at the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center.

“We usually have a speaker on Thursday and it’s just for the kids, but because she is coming form so far away, from Los Angeles, we though we would open it to the whole community,” said Nancy Bickley, PMC’s clinical coordinator for diabetes education.

That speaker is Zippora Karz, a former ballerina who performed with the New York City Ballet from 1983 to 1999. Throughout her life and career, Karz has also been dealing with type 1 diabetes.

“It’s a motivational talk and it’s for the entire community,” Bickley said. “She is going to talk about dealing with her struggles managing her diabetes with such an intense performance schedule.”

The talk will be hosted Wednesday at the Performing Arts Center at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and it’s free to the public. Prior to addressing the larger crowd, Karz will meet from 6 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. with those youths participating in the camp.

Karz learned she had type 1 diabetes about a year after earning her spot with the New York City Ballet. She learned of the condition after experiencing several symptoms, including dizziness, hunger, thirst and exhaustion. All of these put her dreams of a dance career in momentary jeopardy as she worked to find out what the root cause was.

She chronicled that experience and how she coped with the disease as a professional ballerina in a book titled “The Sugarless Plum — A Ballerina’s Triumph Over Diabetes,” which was published early in 2011. The title is a play on her favorite dance role, the Sugar Plum Ferry in “The Nutcracker.”