A Campaign Milestone – Thanks to Your Efforts!
Thanks to your great determination and continued hard work, 111 Promise meetings have been scheduled and/or attended! We are well on our way to achieving our goal of 400 meetings!
To say this has been a “wild” fall would be an understatement! Along with all the Promise meetings in the works, we are also working to secure federal funding for diabetes research. The Special Diabetes Program (SDP) currently provides 35% of all federal support for type 1 diabetes! We are working to reauthorize this critically important program for five years. Both the Senate and the House have introduced legislation to renew the SDP (S.1494 and H.R. 2762) at $200 million per year for five years, or $1 billion total.
We wish to reiterate how important the Promise to Remember Me Campaign is to achieving this reauthorization.
By sharing your personal stories with your Members of Congress, you are helping these legislators see the need for the SDP reauthorization. Your visits are truly making a difference! You are helping to create momentum to ensure that our $1 billion type 1 renewal effort is successful!
There is no way to adequately thank you for all the time and effort you are spending to schedule these meetings.
We know that managing diabetes is difficult enough. Combined with your family, professional and volunteer obligations, spearheading Promise in your area is not an easy task.
We hope you are taking advantage of the dedicated and passionate JDRF Government Relations Staff. They are willing to support you as much as possible – i.e. helping you with strategy; sending out email communications to advocates; making phone calls to recruit people to attend meetings; helping with follow-up, etc.
We are proud to be the co-chairs of this very important campaign and we want to make sure you know that we’re here for you.
Here’s to finding a cure!
Elliott, Tom, and Lorraine
Elliott Yamin, International Celebrity Advocate Co-Chair, Promise To Remember Me Campaign
Tom Glass and Lorraine Stiehl, Volunteer Co-Chairs, Promise To Remember Me Campaign