congress
Not sure if you’ve had the chance to take a look at our
recent call to action, ‘Continue
NIH Research like the Artificial Pancreas’, but it shares some great
information about how far we’ve come with research because of federal funding
programs like the Special
Diabetes Program (SDP).
Good Thursday to you and hope you had a chance to follow
along our #JDRFGovDay
efforts on Twitter
earlier this week. Volunteer JDRF Advocacy leaders were on Capitol Hill on Monday
and Tuesday to ask Congress to support a letter issued to the congressional
leadership by the House and Senate caucuses on Diabetes.
Check out the final highlight for the 2011 Childrens’ Congress from our camera team, this one features more testimony from award winning actor, Kevin Kline and our delegates. (Apologies for the delay in getting this up for you but I had taken a little vacation right after CC and this clips wasn’t ready by the time I left!)
I’ll have another clip or two to share later this week and will also share blogs that our CC delegates have put out about their advocacy in Washington.
We are quickly approaching one of my favorite holidays of
the year: Independence Day! This weekend will be filled with barbeques,
parades, fireworks and festivals. I am sure that many of you are already on
your way to the festivities as I write this!
Around July 4th every year, I try think about
patriotic things I can do to celebrate the birth of our country. This year, I
realized that a great way to do so would be to meet with my Members of Congress on issues important
to me!
If you have been following the coverage of the recent Children’s Congress, you know that there has been important APP news related to FDA. Many of you have been working hard since Government Day in March to educate your legislators about the artificial pancreas and as a result of your efforts, a bipartisan majority in the House and Senate sent letters to the Commissioner of FDA to urge them to continue to make the artificial pancreas a priority and issue guidance as soon as possible. In addition to this letter, leading clinicians from around the country and organizations including American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, The Endocrine Society, and American Association of Diabetes Educators also sent letters to Commissioner Hamburg supporting the recommendatio
After having worked the past three Children’s Congresses, I love the fact that each class of our delegates is key in making sure that we continue to push forward towards a cure and ensure that federal funding continues to support this effort.
We were very lucky to have Brian Kenny join us at another Children's Congress this year! Brian served as the emcee for the "Role Models with Type 1 Diabetes" Town Hall panel. Check out our video from Brian below!
I had great
time hanging out with Crystal Bowersox and her team during the 2011 Children’s
Congress, what a great set of people to be around and so inspiring for our
delegates! See below for a quick video she did for me as she was preparing to
attend a meeting on Capitol Hill.
I got a chance to catch up with swimmer and Olympian, Gary Hall, who also shared his thoughts on his time at Children's Congress (watch the highlights of the town hall).
The 2011 Children’s Congress also invited LPGA player, Carling Coffing to the Role Models with Diabetes town hall.
As a professional golfer, Carling is in her fourth season on the Duramed Future Tour. She was twice named to the Big Ten All-Conference Second Team, and in 2010, she was winner of the Golf Channel's Big Break: Sandals Resort Series. Diagnosed at age five, she hopes that through her success and exposure on the golf course, she can be a role model for children with diabetes. Carling donated a portion of her 2010 professional golf earnings to JDRF. She will be a role-model panelist at Town Hall during Children's Congress.
