RINCON – Mark Collie has a history of helping out.

So much so that when he takes the stage Saturday at the 6th Annual Gears and Grub Food Truck and Car Show at Freedom Park to help raise funds for Effingham Health System, it’ll be another entry in a list of good causes the versatile country music singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, filmmaker and onetime race car driver has supported over his decades-spanning career.

It’s a career that started in songwriting and morphed into a solo act with top 10 hits and 1990s country music staples “Even the Man in the Moon is Crying,” and “Born to Love You,” which are among 16 of Collie’s singles to make the charts.

Collie has also found success acting and currently is playing Sheriff Walt Joeberg on “The Landman” with Billy Bob Thornton and Demi Moore.

But it’s what Collie, a member of the Country Music Walk of Fame and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame, does for others, and with others, that may resonate longer. 

“I’ve always tried to realize that by having a little bit of a voice, maybe I can have some influence in getting people to help causes that matter and I’ve always been fortunate to know some great people who want to help,” he said Monday, noting someone once told him there are times when the desire to help is due to personal reasons, and sometimes personal reasons are the best reasons to help, but in either case it’s help.

For example, a relative of Collie and his wife Tammy is a longtime friend of Scott Russell, director of Effingham Health System Foundation, and that personal connection led to Saturday’s performance.

“I’m happy to lend my music to the cause,” Collie said, “and to help with any efforts I can. The hospital provides an important service to the community and the more I learn about it the more I’m excited to be able to help. It’s the least I can do.”

Healthcare is clearly important to Collie, who was diagnosed at 17 with Type 1 diabetes and has battled it since – though he said Monday he’s been without complications for 40 years.

Still, through various endeavors, including a stock car race involving a Who’s Who of NASCAR and country music legends, Collie has helped raise so much money for research into the illness The Mark Collie Chair in Diabetes Research was established at Vanderbilt.

“I’ve been blessed to live a good, long and healthy life even with having diabetes,” Collie said. “It’s not always been easy but it’s not impossible to do that. But a lot of people are not so fortunate, and it is personal to me to help families with diabetes, through research and education.”

 Also personal is Collie’s support for the military. His father, Staff Sgt. David Collie, was a B24 tail gunner in the Mighty Eighth Army Air Corps and survived being shot down in the Ploesti bombing raid in 1943, and a number of Collie’s siblings are either retired military or still serving.

Collie, prevented from joining up due to his diabetes, has from 1977 performed around the world for U.S. troops – he’s even opened for Bob Hope -- and in 1996 with fellow country star Aaron Tippin organized a C141 plane load of music cassettes and delivered them to troops in Bosnia, then performed.  That led to the U.S. Air Force awarding Collie its American Spirit Award, which sits on his desk.

“I was humbled by that,” he said.

Later, Collie, who grew up fiddling with cars and did some of his own racing and whose ties to NASCAR are numerous, was invited to give the eulogy at a memorial service in Nashville for his friend, Dale Earnhardt after he was killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

“I couldn’t have sung there if I had been asked,” Collie said. “I barely could get up and speak.”

Through it all there’ve been turns in movies and on TV, including an earlier stint on ABC’s “Nashville.” Collie starred as Johnny Cash in the short film he co-wrote and co-produced with John Loyd Miller called “I Miss Someone” in 1999 and in 2010 was Harry Heck in “The Punisher.”

It’s a busy schedule, but Colllie said he wakes every day glad to be alive.

“I still get out a great joy out of songwriting, and I really enjoy playing in front of a live audience. I want to try to do more of that,” he said.

The Collies support food banks, work with kids hooked on drugs and are also supportive of law enforcement and first responders, and even though he’s currently playing a sheriff in Landman, he’s quick to note he’s not a law enforcement officer, “but I do have all the respect in the world for what they do,” he said.

Finally, much of Collie’s story is documented online and his videos are easy to find, though sometimes the differences in photographs and videos between the long-haired youth who had his first hit in 1993 and the more recent man approaching 70 can be startling. But it all started way back in rural Tennessee, where Collie picked up a guitar when he was still a kid and began to get busy.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, and if I told you the truth, I still don’t know what I’m doing, but I started making up songs, and people started thinking they were good, and one thing led to another and I guess it evolved into everything that’s happened since,” Collie said. “I know once I committed to do something, I wanted to try to make a contribution to country music.”

He’s also grateful to be where he is, given the alternative offered him by his diabetes.

“I’m truly thankful to have been able to see my prayers and dream come true,” Colllie said.  “One of the things I did back then was made a promise to the Lord that if I could have just one hit record, I’d go and do something for people with diabetes. So, I was keeping a promise when I started trying to help people. I’m still keeping that promise the best I can.”