The Web Warren

Picture the "Easter Parade" that was once the New York City population strolling to and from church in their Sunday best, but which has now become a display for the some of the most outlandish millinery creations seen outside a Hallowe'en Parade, a Mardi Gras float, or a Vegas spectacular. Now transfer that (pardon the pun!) to a T-shirt design contest for people of peripatetic pancreases and put it on a planked walkway peripheral to the plage (beach), and you have the Seaside Heights JDRF walk.

  (READ MORE)

The Web Warren

It's September and the weather has cooled down enough for the Usual Suspects to hold their Fall Fun(d)raising Features. The festivities have already started: the weekend before Labor Day, Allison of Lemonade Life rode a rather rainy JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes until she was sidelined by a passing van's rear-view mirror. As usual, Carey's got his Charlie's Angels JDRF walk group going at the end of October, while my STARFLEET Regional group will participate in the JDRF Seaside Heights walk on the first weekend in October. (READ MORE)

I usually have my JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes fundraising letter done and distributed by mid-July. This year has been different. I've been in a fundraising funk. I'm just tired of writing the same statistics year after year. The lower life expectancy; the long-term complications; adding up the number of finger pricks since November of 2003. I finally did sit down and write our letter - deciding to simply write what I was feeling at that moment.

Dear Friends and Family,

"A cure for diabetes is just around the corner."

"Scientists are closer than ever to finding a cure."

"A cure for diabetes is now within reach."

  (READ MORE)

When we got out of the car, the first thing Charlie did was adjust his "Charlie's Angels" t-shirt so that his insulin pump was visible to his fellow diabetic comrades.

Then he scoped the area for others who sported similar machinery. If there was a "D" signal on the pump, he would have surely activated it.

Calling all diabetics! Calling all diabetics! Rendezvous at the Tastykake table in 5. Tell your mothers you feel low.

We had a gorgeous day filled with sunshine and the support of great friends and family who walked beside us for a cure at Rutgers University's agricultural campus.

  (READ MORE)

In trying to raise money for diabetes research, I've definitely noticed the effect of our declining economy. People just don't have money to give this year. 

With a month left before our team assembles for the Walk to Cure Diabetes, I've reached the stage of our JDRF fundraising campaign where I get a little desperate. When just about every person, place or thing in my periphery is fair game.

For example, driving home from a soccer game and crossing the Delaware River toll bridge. Hmm, I thought. Tolls. (READ MORE)

It's a milestone - but not one worthy of celebration.

Charlie is approaching five years with this despicable disease.

We can't remember Charlie without diabetes. Charlie can't either. His earliest memories will contain images of blood being taken from his fingertips constantly, being poked with sharp objects and juice being forced down his throat in the middle of the night.

Soon we won't be able to remember a time when Charlie wasn't attached to an insulin pump; a time when tape and tubing and needle wasn't fastened to his body 24 hours a day like some sort of medieval torture device.

I want this to all be a dream that seemed so real.

I want diabetes to be forgotten. Gone so long, the word escapes me.

Gone so long, the word is mispronounced.

We need a cure. We need a cure now.  (READ MORE)