JDRF Walkathon: Three Years of Team Bisi

For the past three falls since Bisi was diagnosed, we’ve done the JDRF walkathon to raise money to cure, prevent, and treat type 1 diabetes. The first year it was a mad scramble to form our team, since Bisi had been diagnosed only a little more than a month before. But having her friends, new and old, come together to support her as she set out on her own path as someone with diabetes meant an unmeasurable amount to Bisi and to us.  Another bonus, for Bisi, has been the chance to design Team Bisi t-shirts (a girls’ version AND a boys’ version) through the web site CustomInk. Throughout the school year, it’s been fun to see various friends of hers show up on the playground in their colorful Team Bisi shirts. And in the two years since our first walkathon, it’s been interesting for us to note how Bisi’s seriousness of purpose—and her taste—has evolved.

See below the 2012 version, with Bisi’s favorite colors of pink and orange, a blue elephant (her stuffed elephant, Ellie, whom readers may remember from my Safari Report, is also blue), and then a rose, a butterfly, and a heart, just because she liked them. No mention of diabetes—just a bunch of colors and pictures that appealed to a six-year-old girl.

Now the 2013 version, again pink, again with a blue elephant, but with an updated record of her interests and priorities: a red dog, like our new dog Cinnamon at home, a dolphin, a horse, and, on the back, a girl doing gymnastics and some stars just for fun. At the top, in small, hard to read script, she added the message: “Walk to cure type 1 diabetes.”

Skip ahead to the 2014 version, which is simple and on message. (You’ll also note that her favorite color has changed from pink to blue; unfortunately, just about everything she owns is pink, and she’s now impatiently waiting to grow out of it.) No more fun pictures; just a shoe with the words “walk for a cure,” and text in clear, block letters saying  “Team Bisi 2014” and “Walk to Cure Type 1 Diabetes.” This new tone extended to the note Bisi wrote when encouraging people to walk with and support her team:

Dear Family and Friends,

      I have had diabetes for two years. This will be my third walk; I love doing the walk because it’s a time when I get to be with friends and family working together towards a cure for type 1 diabetes. I also like the walk because it feels good to be with other people with diabetes.

     I want to find a cure for T1D so I don’t have to go to the nurse all the time or wear a pump and a constant glucose monitor on my body, and so I could eat whatever I want, whenever I want, without my parents bugging me to take insulin.

     I hope you will walk with me and contribute to JDRF to help cure type 1 diabetes.

Sincerely,

Bisi 

Now that Bisi’s 8, now that she’s had diabetes for two years, the JDRF walk isn’t about a chance to put butterflies and blue elephants  on a t-shirt. It’s a chance to get the message across that she wants this disease cured.

Here’s hoping that the money she raised will help spur things along.

Katie Bacon

Katie Bacon is a writer and editor based in Boston. Her daughter, Bisi, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in August, 2012, when she was six. Katie worked as an editor at The Atlantic, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and other publications. Katie and her husband, Mark, have two children—Bisi and her older brother, Jamie.

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Katie Bacon

Katie Bacon is a writer and editor based in Boston. Her daughter, Bisi, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in August, 2012, when she was six. Katie worked as an editor at The Atlantic, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and other publications. Katie and her husband, Mark, have two children—Bisi and her older brother, Jamie.