Pella NAAM JDRF Fundraiser

For our 2018 National Accounts Annual Meeting, the women of National Accounts Women’s Connection will be hosting a fundraising event for JDRF Diabetes Foundation. Pella is a large supporter of JDRF, and has recently stated that we want to do more for them. JDRF is the leading global organization funding Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) research. The mission is to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs to cure, prevent and treat T1D and its complications. T1D has no known causes and no known cures, so JDRF has invested nearly $2 billion in research funding since the inception of the organization to find a cure. Through the search for a cure, the scientific team has driven new treatments and therapies that make living with T1D easier, safer and healthier. 

JDRF is also an organization that is in the forefront of one of our own NA Reps, Sue Diers Renault. "I have been living with this disease for over 50 years," said Renault. "When I was first diagnosed, my parents were told that I probably wouldn’t live to see my 40th birthday. Through all the research and ground breaking inventions for treating the disease, I am still here today and in pretty good health!  This disease is something that I have to think about every second of my life.  I cannot leave the house without knowing where my glucose number is.  Am I low, or am I high?  Can I drive?  Can I take a walk?  Basically everything that a normal person takes for granted needs to be thought through for a diabetic. There have been many wonderful, helpful tools to use in treating this disease. I was diagnosed in the era when we used glass syringes and steel needles that needed sterilization. Through the years, I went on to use disposal syringes, and now an insulin pump that was invented with money raised by JDRF. Another item that helps with diabetic management is the glucose meter which is a medical device for determining the approximate concentration of glucose in the blood, and it is a key element of home blood glucose monitoring by people with diabetes mellitus or hypoglycemia. It is what I need to use to know what I can do at any given moment. The advancements that JDRF has provided has helped me to live a great life while still fighting this disease."

There are currently 1.25 million Americans living with T1D, with a projected amount of that number rising to 5 million if nothing is done. JDRF is rated as the number one charity to donate to because 97% of every dollar that is donated goes to the cure of the disease.  Please help us raise money in honor of our coworker and the millions of Americans, whether family, friends, or strangers, who are living with this every day.