JDRF Children's Congress Day 3

Updating this post with a great link to the senate hearing and some photos.
click here for the PR Newswire testimony coverage.

Mary Tyler Moore spoke candidly about how her eyesite has been drastically comprimised due to complications from type 1, and Sugar Ray's "No Mas" speech was incredibly moving.

Nick Jonas was compelling and quite brave to speak openly about his frustrations about having type 1, and Dr. Griffen Rodgers mentioned Sonya Sotomayer and how she was an incredible role model for the children's delegates, which I thought was timely.
The Children who testified had as important, if not even more moving accounts of living with type 1, but the audience had thinned out significantly by then. I was proud of all the delagates. It was crowded and hot and uncomfortable in that room and not a single kid misbehaved or worse, had a medical need.

Standing in line to get tickets to go to the top of the Washington Monument blogging from my sister's phone. Blitz was busy, busy busy after a success Senate Hearing.L got to experience the paparazzi and crazy fans for a serious event with an important message.We are proud of the celebrities for their personal accounts and moving requests for funding.highlight of the day was riding the "Congress only" underground train between the Russel Building and the Capitol with Senator Merkley.Didn't have my camera. Hope to post pictures soon.Good article on PR Newswire and JDRF.org. Will post libks soon.

JDRF Children's Congress 2009 Day 2

Well, it was quite an eventful day at Children's Congress! The kids were all taken to the white house this morning to meet the President and were surprised with a guest appearance by Nick Jonas! A rock star and a world leader - how will I ever top that next summer! There is an article on the people website that talks a little about this event
In addition to that we were all invited to hear comments from an all-star panel of mentors which included Jared Allen, Alisa Weilerstein, Kalilah Allen-Harris, and Aaron Kowalski. The highlight for me was getting to see Mary, a personal hero of mine.

Mary Tyler Moore speaking at the Town Hall "Role Models in Diabetes"

JDRF Children's Congress Day 1

Just turning in from our first day in DC for the JDRF Children's Congress. We learned about a half an hour ago that the 150 children delegates will get to meet and take a picture with President Obama tomorrow morning. This is a really amazing suprise and everyone is very excited about it!
The photo is of the kids rehersing the Promise to Remember Me song to sing on the steps of the capital on Wednesday. It was a treat to be at the rehersal - I was amazed that all the kids knew the song really well and sang in tune (well, with the exception of one enthusiastic and loud child!)
Tomorrow will be another full day of events and training for the Blitz meetings on Wednesday.
It was a beautiful day here, a bit warm, but windy, so the sky looked beautiful and made the city picture perfect.

off to JDRF Children's Congress!

We are off to Washington DC to represent Oregon at the 10th JDRF Children's Congress. We are so excited to get this opportunity to make a difference and to be able to speak about why we feel it is so important to continue to fund research and programs to help find a cure for type 1 diabetes. It will be three years for L on June 26th. Can't think of any better place to be than in DC for this event! And yesterday it was announced that Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers will be there to testify to congress. Now that is "like totally awesome!"