On Sunday, October 1^st, over 6,000 people will participate in the JDRF One Walk in Sacramento.  Many will travel to the Capital city from throughout our chapter’s 29-county territory for camaraderie with other Type 1 families, to help raise awareness and join in the effort to turn Type One into Type None.   Whether living in the Sacramento area or more far reaching areas of our chapters’ territory, the passion to raise dollars and help find a cure are the same.  Below are excerpts from conversations with a few, first-year walk teams that will be participating:

“Living in a rural area there are not many people who even know how deeply diabetes has an impact on a family. Traveling to meet people at the One Walk registration helped us and our son to connect with others and help us all feel positive about our children. I’m hoping to help raise awareness in our area so others can know about the positive work JDRF does. Having our son have his brother be a part of this and represent him and his team helps build a stronger family bond.  T1D affects us as a family and as a family we will work to find a cure.”

• -Ginger Venegas, Gerber

“We are a newly diagnosed family, as of January 2017 and will be walking in honor of our daughter Gwen, who is our type 1 girl. We are from Modesto and are eager to walk, raise awareness of type 1, and of course, help raise funds for a cure. We plan on attending the Walk in Sacramento with about 15-20 on our team in support of Gwen. We are eager to make new friends that, “get it” and walk in our State Capital and be a champion for all the people struggling with this journey.”

-Michelle-Marie Fields, Modesto

If the distance is too great for you and your team this year, you can still participate by hosting your own One Walk in your community or joining virtually.  To learn how, please contact Claighton Byrn at (916) 920-0790 or at cbyrn@jdrf.org.  Thanks to all of our teams for their inspiring efforts!