Nothing Great Ever Happens by Itself; Nothing Ever Will.

How many of us take the time to attend an event.  You walk through the door and “POW” magic awaits.  It does not matter what organization you support, none of it ‘just’ happens.  It happens because people care enough to make it happen.  Such was my trip last Sunday to DRI’s Carnival for a Cure in New York City.

It was full of wonderful people like the multi-Emmy-Award winning Chris Wragge of CBS 2 News who gave his time and his energy to emcee the event.  His note taking, making sure he got it all correctly—even as an emcee of an event—is just more proof on why this meticulous man sits at the anchor desk of the 6:00 news.  Thanks Chris.

Nationally known journalist and person with T1, Benno Schmidt, also stopped by just to say hello “because he was in the area”.  How great is that?  Benno, of course from dLife, and now even hosts the new DRItv, keeping people updated on the latest in research at the DRI, took pictures with those who asked and  mingled for most of the afternoon.  Here he is pictured with  the always beautiful and DRIF National Board Member Bonnie Inserra and DRIF Northeast Board Member Lindsey Inserra—and, moi.

The excitement of this event was electric and one was impressed looking around the room and seeing the entire set up with an army of volunteers.  Here a group of volunteers has a little down time prior to the start and are playing on the world’s largest fuse ball table, or the largest I have ever seen anyway.  They were nonstop for hours and were ready, willing, and able to get done whatever was asked of them and surely a ‘hat-tip’ to the so many who gave of their time freely.

And of course there is always the leadership and how fortunate is the DRI to have some of the greatest volunteer leadership in the world.  This event did not just happened, it took months and months of planning and surely it would not have been as successful were it not for the Co-Chairs; Ronnie & Harry Agress, Meredith & Scott Buchwald, Jena Kingsley, and Brett  & Daniel Sundheim and the fabulous committee and staff of the DRI working in tandem to make this hugely successful.

But as always, and in all ways, it is about the kids at an event like this which raises money for research.  But it does more than that; it is the absolute living example of how fabulously adaptable our kids with diabetes are in the world they live in.  I have stated a thousand times that, not having diabetes, I have no idea what my two children go through.  And to see them just ‘being kids’ was a true heart-warmer.

But there is an addition to that phrase; our children also have no idea what we as parents feel as they go through their world of diabetes.  Our goals are simple and one is razor-focused; a cure. 

Our children to someday live in a world where there is no diabetes and in as many are working on it; many believe the DRI will lead the way to get us to what we want so badly; a world where our kids are free of diabetes.  

To me this picture is worth everything in the world to me as my little friend, Lauren, and I have a little fun together.  The faces of kids both with and without diabetes.  The pain on the face of a big brother or a big sister watching their sibling go through the daily challenges of diabetes; the faces of our children with diabetes and their huge round eyes when they look look up at us and say, “make it stop hurting”, no ones this like a parent.  If one is not a parent, they could never understand the aching in our heart and knowing how driven we are.  The face of a child is what makes us continue at this, and will continue, until diabetes is a thing of the past. 

This is not a statement of rhetoric to me; this is a statement of absolute sincerity and reality.  I wake up every day and state; something positive needs to get done today.  That is the goal and my excitement toward that end grows daily.  The sponsors for this event were plentiful and we surely thank all of them but it really touches my heart when I see kids themselves getting involved like Willa (pictured here receiving an award from Chris) who, along with her entire family, created Willa’s Wish Foundation which has given over $40,000 thus far in the efforts to find a cure.

When you look at all of these things combined, and you see the world that you may or may not be aware of; it makes one appreciate that there is much happening at almost any given moment.  If not the event itself, the planning of an event.  What was really cool about this day was that at the exact same time on the exact same day in a different part New York the DRI Kids Party for a Cure was also happening.  That’s a lot of kids having fun. 

Nothing happens by itself.  Nothing ever will.  The only way  to make a difference is working together to bring about change.  Change in a world, change in a research lab, change in how our kids face diabetes, and change in our own hearts. 

Such was a day of fun.  Such was DRI’s Carnival for a Cure.

I am a diabetes dad.

Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.