18 Hours to a Promise Meeting
I received a call from Roderick McClary, Congressional Aide to
Representative John Conyers, at 3:30 in the afternoon on Thursday,
August 27th. He was calling to offer me a Promise to Remember Me
meeting time with the Congressman--for the next morning at 9:30 AM!
Having previously turned down another offer by Mr. McClary that
afforded me even less lead-time,
I accepted the meeting
time. With serious doubts about finding
advocates who would be able to attend on such short notice, I
immediately jumped on the JDRF Promise Admin website and sent an email
to every advocate in Mr. Conyers' district. At the top of that list was
a family, the Kettlers, who had signed up specifically for a Promise
meeting 2 months earlier and I hoped that they would be motivated
enough to respond to my plea! I also had the name of a constituent I
had met at a JDRF Walk event who had indicated he might be interested
in attending a Promise meeting.
I called the gentleman I had met at the Walk event and personally emailed the family I found on the website (they had no phone number listed) and crossed my fingers. Corrie Kettler, who had signed up on the website, called me within a half hour and agreed to attend along with her three awesome kids--8 year old Lexi, 6 year old Emily who has Type I, and 3 year old Austin! I have to emphasize here that this family had to jump through a lot of hoops to get to this meeting. The weather that morning was steady rain. Mr. Conyers' district office is in a federal building in downtown Detroit and it has very strict security, so much so that Corrie did not bring along the usual entertainments for the kids to keep them busy while we waited. And as there were two groups ahead of us that morning, wait we did! An hour and a half past our appointment time! The children were so patient and well-behaved. It was all worthwhile though as we had a very positive meeting with Congressman Conyers. He has been and continues to be a great supporter of JDRF and diabetes research. The Kettler kids left there that morning with a personal copy of the Constitution given to them by the Congressman and a life experience they will not soon forget. As the Promise Coordinator, I am so grateful to them for their responsiveness and interest in attending this meeting. Great people like them make my job easier and will help us find a cure faster by putting face on this disease for our representatives in Washington! Thank you Kettler Family!
You can read the summary of the meeting with Congressman Conyers at http://bit.ly/3i5SMS.
Jill Geisendorfer
JDRF MI Recruitment Leader
2010 Promise Campaign Coordinator
About the Promise Campaign
The Promise Campaign is a coordinated effort to schedule and complete as many meetings as possible between representatives and senators and their constituents in their local districts. In addition to building relationships with federal lawmakers, it allows JDRF to continue the momentum and messaging established through our Children's Congress event.
More about the Promise to Remember Me Campaign.