Shelby & Bill Robinson

Shelby & Bill Robinson, originally uploaded by teamshelby.

The kick-off luncheon was inspirational, to say the least. With this year's theme being "Go for the cure!", it was easy to get into the spirit of the Olympics and "join the JDRF challenge and discover the power of VICTORY!"

Bill Robinson, Sr Vice President and General Manager of Pepsi Bottling Co gave an fantastic speech about how he and Pepsi are inspired by what the JDRF is doing with research and will continue to be our corporate sponsor. The employees of Pepsi have formed smaller teams within the company and are all competing to see who can raise the most money!

We also heard from an amazing woman who told the story of how she lost her father when she was only 14 to Type I diabetes. Of course, back then there wasn't much in the way of treatment and I'm sure many people found out much later in life that they had the disease allowing for advanced complications. Then, she talked about her stepson who is married to an amazing woman who is also afflicted with Type I and the two of them have an adorable baby boy who was diagnosed at 9 months.

Even with research coming as far as it has, it's difficult to monitor BG (blood glucose) in such a small baby. Ugh!

As Shelby, Alex and I were picking up all of our fund-raising supplies, Bill Robinson stopped Shelby to admire her "Team Shelby" shirt. They chatted for a long while when I finally said, "Shelby, do you know who this is? He's the President of Pepsi! His company makes Diet Pepsi." She thought that was very cool. He indulged us with a picture and afterward Shelby said, "Wow mommy, I can't believe that I had my picture taken with THE PRESIDENT!" Gulp. Too cute!

He's a fabulous speaker and a charming man.

Needless to say, we were all determined by the end of the luncheon to GO FOR THE GOLD!