Pete and Sandy Chronis Organize a Memorial Day Ride

If you would like to donate to help find a cure for type-1 diabetes please click HERE! 

(This single click takes you to my fund-raising page.  There, click again on "donate to this event."  Then click "Biking and Painting for Diabetes."

Matt Westendorf
Future Endocrinologist?

Yesterday was a good day to get psyched up to ride across the country and raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.  In the morning, I rode the "Square-to-Square" ride organized by Pete and Sandy Chronis of Glendale, Ohio.  Pete and Sandy have a daughter who is type-1 and they've been involved in fund-raising work for many years, including riding the JDRF event in Death Valley for many years. 

The Memorial Day ride they put together ever year is a great chance to bicycle with nice people, half of whom have or are raising money for JDRF.  So you're in good company no matter who you ride beside.

This year there were more than a hundred bicyclers involved.

A good part of the morning I pedaled with Debbie Westendorf, whose son Matt has been a type-1 diabetic since he was two.

Debbie, herself,  is getting ready to run a marathon in Ireland in September.  (So she has no trouble keeping up with me.)  Her son Aaron is a good friend of my daughter Emily; and we know him well, and I tell his mom what a great young man he is.  You can tell she's proud of both of her boys, and for good reason.  We turn to discussion of JDRF and Matt, who will be a senior at Princeton High next year.  (And we keep our eyes open for potholes and cars back.)  He's a very strong student, diabetes and all, and may go into the medical field in college because of his interest in health-related issues and science.  Debbie tells me about the time when Matt first got sick.  She came into the kitchen and there he was, sound asleep on the floor.

It makes you sad, a little, to think of Matt when he was a toddler--and all the other kids who turn up diabetic every day--then you see what these guys do despite a faulty pancreas, and you have to be impressed.  Matt is a good enough student to consider becoming an endocrinologist some day, and works at Bob Evans in Sharonville if you ever need a good breakfast.  This summer he'll be spending a week as counselor at Camp Korelitz, working with young diabetic kids.

So, thanks to people like Pete and Sandy, and Sam Benzinger and Samantha Tipton (I'll post their story tomorrow), there are all kinds of people working for a cure today.

Andrew Taylor Benzinger

Sam's young grandson, Andrew, is shown at right.

Like Matt, like my daughter Emily, Andrew is hoping for a cure.

If you would like to donate to help find a cure for type-1 diabetes please click HERE! 

(This single click takes you to my fund-raising page.  There, click again on "donate to this event."  Then click "Biking and Painting for Diabetes."