Rockland County—At an age when many teens are content to be strolling around their local mall, two Bergenfield residents were also out walking one recent Sunday. But theirs wasn’t just any walk. Early that morning, October 6, at 10 a.m., 16-year-old Daniella Jacobs and her friend teamed up in Rockland County along with other volunteers to form team D&A in an effort to raise money and awareness for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF).

JDRF is the largest non-governmental funder of research aimed at eradicating Type 1 Diabetes, a debilitating disease which affects approximately 18 million Americans, both adults and children. Every dollar donated to research through JDRF comes from private donors. T1D is a life threatening auto-immune disease wherein a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin. Daniella acknowledges that most people do not recognize the challenges that children with diabetes face daily: the constant need to check food labels, the necessity for daily medications and or insulin shots, the constant checking of blood sugar to name just a few.

Yet, despite Sunday’s gloomy weather, and the seriousness of the cause, the 5-kilometer race was a fun-filled, celebratory event. Annually, its organizers focus on raising awareness about Juvenile Diabetes while providing refreshments and entertaining activities for its participants. Volunteers walked at their own pace with parents and friends either cheering them on or walking with them and their smiling faces were not at all dimmed by the cloudy weather.

Daniella, diagnosed at age 4, has been living with juvenile Type 1 Diabetes for 12 years. Her good friend and co-team member has been ill for 13 years. Together they hope to educate people and to raise funds so that diabetes can be eradicated in their lifetime. As of this writing, Team D&A is almost at their goal of raising $1,000 towards this cause. (Donations can still be made to team D&A through the JDRF web site.)

Each year, youngsters like Daniella come up with creative ways to raise funds for research, giving them a wonderful sense of accomplishment and more importantly a sense of control over their illness.

Said Daniella,“The walk was really nice. It was amazing to see how many people came out to show their support for all the children with juvenile diabetes. It was extremely special to be able to participate in this walk with my family and close friends.  It was unfortunate that the weather was not great, but everyone continued to walk. We are about to reach our goal and as people continue to give donations hopefully we will hit $1,000.”

By Estelle Glass