Sunday, October 01, 2006

2006 Walk To Cure Diabetes - Help Ben's Buddies!



Hi friends,
I appreciate how many of you check this site for news of Hannah regularly. She is doing well, but I want to take this opportunity to tell you about another child. Ben White is an 8 year old boy from my church who has juvenile diabetes. That's him in the photos above, and the 2nd one includes his younger sister Mary and his older brother Jake. Ben was diagnosed when he was 2 years old and in the last six years has had over 13,000 fingerpricks to check his blood sugar and thousands of insulin injections. He now wears an insulin pump that helps control his diabetes, but still must check his sugar 7-10 times a day and endure painful site changes to keep the pump working properly. In addition, his parents must carefully monitor everything he eats and all his activities.

On October 28, Hannah and I plan to join Ben's family and friends in the 2006 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes at Inverness Office Park. If you're not familiar with it, JDRF is the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and they are doing some amazing research with juvenile diabetes as they search for a cure. Ben deserves that cure - as do all the many other children across the world affected by juvenile diabetes. I'm posting this in hopes that someone might be moved to make a donation to JDRF in honor of Ben. Asking for money has never been something I was good at or felt comfortable with. But this is important. Ben is not just "some kid at my church". He and his family are a part of my family - my faith family. In fact, I've taught both Ben and his younger sister Mary in the children's programs at different times over the years and their mother is a good friend. But, besides all that, God has blessed me tremendously with support from those around me when I needed it most. Now, it's my turn to be on the giving end. But I can't do it alone. If you'd like to help with any donation amount, I would very much appreciate it and I know Ben's family would appreciate it greatly as well. You can give in one of two ways. Follow this link: http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=86556208 to donate online OR e-mail me directly at DeEtte530@juno.com and I will send you my mailing address for you to send a check (made out to JDRF). All donations are tax-deductible and every donation helps. Thank you!!

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