Jim, Crystal and Logan Michael plan to attend the kickoff party for the local Walk to Cure Diabetes at Diamond Mills in Saugerties next Thursday, August 16. The event, a benefit for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), will celebrate the fundraising accomplishments of 2011 and welcome teams for the upcoming 2012 walk at Cantine Field on the morning of Sunday, September 23. Walker check-ins and entertainment begin at 9:30, and the actual walk is scheduled to start at 11 a.m.
Since its founding in 1970, JDRF has funded $1.6 billion in research to cure, treat and prevent juvenile diabetes, the more serious of the two types of diabetes. JDRF-funded research has led to promising leads to fight the ravaging disease. “We want to keep the dream alive,” says Jim Michael.
Type 1 diabetes (T1D) is a disease you never outgrow,” explains the website for the Albany-based chapter of JDRF. “Adults with Type 1 diabetes not only have to face the everyday challenges of managing their disease at work and home, they also have to deal with lack of awareness from the general public. It’s just as important for adults with T1D to know they are not alone as it is for kids and teens.”
You can help by supporting JDRF. Go to www.jdrf.org.
The Michael family, who live in New Paltz, have first-hand experience with the juvenile-onset form of the disease. Let Jim Michael. Logan’s father, explain his introduction to it in his own words:
“On Monday, August 17, 2009, my wife Crystal and I took our son, Logan, for his routine physical to our family doctor. Everything seemed to be fine; Logan was a happy, healthy, seven-year-old boy. We received a call from our doctor on Friday that there was sugar in Logan’s urine. We were assured not to worry, that this could be caused by many things. He suggested we bring Logan to a pediatric endocrinologist to follow up.
Join the family! 
