JDRF One Walk Team Spotlight – Together for Abraham
By Jack Wagner, JDRF One Walk, Silicon Valley, Committee Member
For Dominga Alvarez, the mother of eight-year-old Abraham Pacheco (for whom the team Together for Abraham is named), the JDRF One Walk, Silicon Valley held at Almaden Lake Park in San Jose on October 31 will be her third of the year. She has been hard at work raising money leading up to each Walk, designing team t-shirts to sell to family and friends, with all proceeds being donated on Walk day. So far this year she has sold over 100 t-shirts.
All the shirts sold this year are grey, bar one: Abraham’s, which is blue. Abraham has another way of standing out this year as well, namely through the way he has raised money. Showing that the entrepreneurial spirit runs through the generations, he has taken to selling popsicles in his neighborhood in East Palo Alto, following his mother’s mold of fundraising.
“He wanted to find something that he could do, so when he asked if I could buy the popsicles I said yes,” Dominga said.
With a cooler in one hand and a modified cookie jar for collecting donations in the other, Abraham went around his neighborhood and sold the popsicles, explaining to each person he encountered why he was there, what type 1 diabetes (T1D) is and how it affects him, and how JDRF supports research pursuing a cure.
At least one person gave $100 and others what they could. At the end of the day Abraham returned home full of excitement and with a much heavier cookie jar.
The JDRF One Walk events are key dates on the calendar for all in the family. The excitement around them comes from the opportunity to bring together family, friends, teammates of Abraham’s (he loves soccer), teachers, and members of the community. They are also days when Abraham can fully be himself and share with his friends a unique part of his identity that he has had to adjust to since his diagnosis three years ago.
Those early days were frightening and confusing, especially with no history of T1D in Dominga’s nor her husband’s families, but the Walks help them find a way forwards.
“We’re growing daily, but we want to know that we’re doing our part too to help people who are suffering with diabetes,” Dominga said.
On October 31, be on the lookout for a large group of grey-shirted walkers led by an excited boy in a blue shirt. It might just be Together for Abraham, a team lead by a creative and driven mother, with an enthusiastic son following in her footsteps.
Register for a JDRF One Walk today!