2009 JDRF Walk Wrap Up

This year, (our 4th year) 16 people came out on walk day to support Arden!  The weather was perfect and we raised a tidy sum of money to support type I research.  

Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve accomplished together over the last four walks.

-Hundreds of people have walked with Arden and acted as advocates on her behalf.

-Arden’s website is viewed in Canada, all over the USA, England, Australia, Mexico, Japan and South America.

-With your help we have raised more then $32,000 for the JDRF.

-Most importantly this walk has educated countess people about what a child’s day is like when they have type I diabetes.  Thank you for all of your kindness and support!

Pictures from the walk are here.

Donations are still being accepted at all of our walker’s JDRF pages or by mail. Got to this link http://walk.jdrf.org/ and search for team ‘Walk for Arden’ under the red sneaker icon to see our walkers.

Lastly, many people collect donations and everyone’s effort carries equal weight in my mind but I’d be remiss if I didn’t give special thanks to Dan Stewart. Dan met Arden three years ago at a children’s birthday party and has since raised thousands of dollars for her walk, this year his total on walk day was well over $3,000.  He volunteered at our Poker Tournament and runs his own fundraisers.  If this walk had an MVP trophy, Dan would get it every year.  I’m humbled by his kindness and proud to call him a friend.

This year, (our 4th year) 16 people came out on walk day to support Arden!  The weather was perfect and we raised a tidy sum of money to support type I research.  

Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve accomplished together over the last four walks.

-Hundreds of people have walked with Arden and acted as advocates on her behalf.

-Arden’s website is viewed in Canada, all over the USA, England, Australia, Mexico, Japan and South America.

-With your help we have raised more then $32,000 for the JDRF.

-Most importantly this walk has educated countess people about what a child’s day is like when they have type I diabetes.  Thank you for all of your kindness and support!

Pictures from the walk are here.

Donations are still being accepted at all of our walker’s JDRF pages or by mail. Got to this link http://walk.jdrf.org/ and search for team ‘Walk for Arden’ under the red sneaker icon to see our walkers.

Lastly, many people collect donations and everyone’s effort carries equal weight in my mind but I’d be remiss if I didn’t give special thanks to Dan Stewart. Dan met Arden three years ago at a children’s birthday party and has since raised thousands of dollars for her walk, this year his total on walk day was well over $3,000.  He volunteered at our Poker Tournament and runs his own fundraisers.  If this walk had an MVP trophy, Dan would get it every year.  I’m humbled by his kindness and proud to call him a friend.

This year, (our 4th year) 16 people came out on walk day to support Arden!  The weather was perfect and we raised a tidy sum of money to support type I research.  

Here’s the breakdown of what we’ve accomplished together over the last four walks.

-Hundreds of people have walked with Arden and acted as advocates on her behalf.

-Arden’s website is viewed in Canada, all over the USA, England, Australia, Mexico, Japan and South America.

-With your help we have raised more then $32,000 for the JDRF.

-Most importantly this walk has educated countess people about what a child’s day is like when they have type I diabetes.  Thank you for all of your kindness and support!

Pictures from the walk are here.

Donations are still being accepted at all of our walker’s JDRF pages or by mail. Got to this link http://walk.jdrf.org/ and search for team ‘Walk for Arden’ under the red sneaker icon to see our walkers.

Lastly, many people collect donations and everyone’s effort carries equal weight in my mind but I’d be remiss if I didn’t give special thanks to Dan Stewart. Dan met Arden three years ago at a children’s birthday party and has since raised thousands of dollars for her walk, this year his total on walk day was well over $3,000.  He volunteered at our Poker Tournament and runs his own fundraisers.  If this walk had an MVP trophy, Dan would get it every year.  I’m humbled by his kindness and proud to call him a friend.

Real progress for diabetic students

NJ Governor Corzine signed the school diabetes care bill into law.  This bill will ensure that students can independently manage their diabetes with the permission of their parent and clinician, and that staff can be trained to administer glucagon for severe hypoglycemia in the event that a school nurse is not present to do so.  The law becomes effective on January 29, 2010 (120 days from yesterdays enactment).  If you are interested in the text of the bill, it can be found at this link.

My Speaking Engagement

I spoke today to Arden’s classmates. They were wondering why Arden leaves class so often.  The children were a fantastic audience and they enjoyed learning more about Arden.  Arden showed the class her pump and I explained a little about sugar in a person’s blood and how insulin releases it.  

At the end of the day we all just wanted Arden’s classmates to be comfortable and I think what we did today went a long way toward that goal.  Hopefully, as the years go on and as more kids learn about type I Arden and her pump will be as normal as recess. 

**

The following are archived comments from this post. You can post new comments below.

Emily

What a nice story, Scott!!!  I'm glad the kids were so receptive to what you had to say, and so understanding of Arden and her diabetes.  I agree with everything you said--it's best to speak with the kids early on, so Arden's diabetes will seem "normal" to them as they move through school.  Also, I think it's good that you went in and talked to the class at this time of year, because Halloween is coming, and maybe now the kids will be on board with brainstorming some ideas to make the class Halloween party a bit more diabetes-friendly, with healthy snacks and whatnot, so Arden can participate along with the other kids.

Saturday, October 17, 2009 - 08:41 PM

Scott

Hi Emily!

Saturday, October 24, 2009 - 08:11 AM

Alexandra

How is everything over there? We haven't had any updates in quite a while so I just wanted to say hello and that I hope you post something soon, but I do know how busy everything gets once school starts! Hope you have a great New Yeat!!

Thursday, December 31, 2009 - 12:31 AM

Our Submission

President Obama has asked Americans to “Create the best 30 second video you can that makes the case for passing health insurance reform in 2009.” 

I made such a video and submitted it today.  

I try very hard not to bring political issues onto Arden’s Day but given the nature of Arden’s disease it begs doing now and again.  We really are lucky because our family has decent health insurance.  Consider that without insurance a test strip costs one dollar each and Arden gets tested 9 times a day on average. Uninsured diabetics pay over five-thousand dollars a year to operate the same insulin pump that Arden uses and that costs us less then four hundred dollars a year to operate.  Arden’s pump is making her life, easier, less stressful and longer and every person deserve that - not just the ones that can afford it.

So I made a video because I’m very concerned that one day if things in the insurance industry continue on their current path Arden may well be denied care because of a pre existing condition.  You may remember that she was already denied care last year for an important procedure so that is certainly not out of the question.  You may not know that I spend a fair amount of time arguing with insurance companies every year over a myriad of issue all of them you would think wouldn’t be an issue... but they (the insurance company) contest everything that they can which adds stress to the lives of people that already have too much of it.  

So we support health care reform if it is real and if it adds coverage for all the people of this country, if it limits costs and most of all if it protects people from being dropped or excluded because they are sick.  Reform that doesn’t do that at minimum is useless.  So if you are likeminded please show support for our video by watching it and passing it on.

Thank you!