Thank you all for for making JDRF’s 2011 Government Day such a stirring success!  

It
was wonderful to have some leaders from the DOC with us to share their
experience and insights as adults with type 1 and as social media mavens.  I am also
grateful that they were able to experience Government Day and to get a
sense of what JDRF Government Relations is all about.  It was also a thrill to have others from the DOC following-along through Twitter and live-streaming video.  We’re going to continue to expand access to Government Day activities in the years ahead.

I’m also very grateful to all the
Government Relations volunteer leaders who attended Government Day.
 Many of these advocates are our unsung heroes, people who may not have
gotten a lot of support from their chapters but used their time, talents
and energy to chase down appointments with legislators, make
countless phone calls to find advocates for meetings, prepare new
volunteers.  They work weekends, evenings and
vacations, throughout the year and for years–to get the word out about
funding for a cure and for therapies to make life better for people
living with type 1.  These advocates are adults with type 1, parents,
spouses, relatives, and even people without a direct connection to
diabetes but who have come to know and embrace our mission.

To Lorraine Stiehl, our
fearless Volunteer Chair of Grassroots Advocacy, whom many of us believe never sleeps, a big Thank You!
  She led us to some tremendous accomplishments including the recent
renewal of SDP that guarantees another $300 million for type 1 research
through 2013.

And finally, my last thank you is to the entire DC JDRF
Government Relations staff that works so hard to help make these efforts
successful.  This team is the foundation that all of our efforts are
built on, they are worth their weight in gold, and I hope they know how much we all appreciate them.