SHELBY & Co.

"Shelby's Wish" - The Video

2012-01-25T15:59:00.000-08:00

Enjoy the official promotional video of "Shelby's Wish" produced by The Wish Connection

2011 Walk to Cure Diabetes @ the Oakland Zoo

2011-10-16T17:49:00.000-07:00

Shelby & Co. had a fabulous day at the Oakland Zoo with the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes! The weather was perfect, the crowd was excited and engaged, and who doesn't like a day at the zoo.

Liz was a huge hit warming up the always enthusiastic East Bay walkers! Here's the video:

In two weeks, we hit San Fran!

Here are the photos on our Shelby & Co. Facebook.

Why is Team Shelby Now 'Shelby & Co.'?

2011-09-30T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, we launched Team Shelby after our daughter Shelby was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. The purpose of Team Shelby was to raise awareness about the causes, treatments and ultimate cure for Type 1, particularly by supporting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the world's leading non-governmental funder of this type of research.

But in December 2009, another member of our family - Scott - was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. At age 42! Clearly, Type 1 Diabetes is not a juvenile condition! Fortunately, Scott's diagnosis came as part of an international family history study program hoping to watch the development of Type 1. It also meant that he was eligible for a clinical trial of GAD protein injections that attempt to slow the loss of insulin-producing beta cells during early onset Type 1.

Two people in the family caused a problem with it came to 'Team Shelby,' though. It wasn't just about Shelby, not that it ever really was. But how to you incorporate another family member without losing the initial purpose of the effort - to support Shelby's diagnosis and urge people to rally around a cure?

We chose 'Shelby & Co.', and a new logo depicting a daughter and father to carry on with our JDRF support efforts. Unfortunately, Facebook doesn't let you rename a page if you have more than 100 fans, which thankfully we do. So the name TeamShelby will live on at least on Facebook.

Shelby & Co. Tremendously Blessed

2011-09-30T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's only two weeks out from the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes now. Unbelievable! It's also our 10th anniversary as a Type 1 Diabetes family!

We need people who are going to join us at the Oakland Zoo on Oct. 16 to register now & start raising contributions. We have fund-raising prizes for the first time ever, too! A set of Paula Deen cookware, Nyla Oliver greeting cards, and more! One drawing entry for every $100 in donations you raise!

If you are not going to join us, please donate to Shelby, Alex, Liz or Scott using a link at the right.

You also can now purchase your Shelby & Co. T-shirt & hoodie online with a debit or credit card! (We keep trying to innovate here at Shelby & Co.!)

One reason we're running behind this year is because The Coreys were unbelievably blessed by The Wish Connection. After being nominated by Dayna Hall, Shelby was selected to have a wish granted, as The Wish Connection's very first Bay Area wish child! What better way to mark 10 years with Type 1 Diabetes?

We spent one luxury weekend in San Francisco with the Giants & more, and another weekend in New York City, where we saw 'Wicked' and the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox! Check out Scott's reflection on the experience.

For Wish pictures, check out the Shelby & Co. Facebook.

September was pretty busy (and absolutely tremendous), but now we need to get down to Shelby & Co. walk business! Join us & help us spread the word!

A great way to keep up with Shelby & Co. is through Facebook.

Purchase Shelby & Co. Gear Online!

2011-09-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

You can now buy your official Shelby and Co. gear online!

Select the items you want and make your purchase today!

Product

Buy Now!

Kids Sizes

Baseball-Style T-shirt

Hoodie

Shirt/Hoodie Combo

Totals

An Awesome Day!

2010-10-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

The Walk to Cure Diabetes in San Francisco was awesome!

The weather held for us. The scenery was fantastic. The people and the never-ending support for Team Shelby and our fight to defeat Type 1 Diabetes were beyond words.

We're still processing all our thoughts and emotions from that day, which also saw our SF Giants win the League Championship. But here are some first photos of the day. We're getting more organized and will add them to this little album shortly!

Walk Day Info Now Available

2010-10-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

Walk Day is already here! It's going to be a fabulous day going across the Golden Gate Bridge, even if it does drizzle on us a bit.

We get to experience the very best of the historic Presidio and the beauty of the Golden Gate.

We'll start at the Main Post for registration, bagels & coffee starting at 9 a.m. At 10:10 a.m., Team Shelby will board our very own shuttle bus for the 30-minute drive over the Golden Gate to the Walk start.

After we walk across the Bridge, we'll head down the hill by the old fort to scenic Crissy Field where we'll pick up lunch, enjoy music and get our team picture taken. It's a 15 minute walk back to the Main Post where we parked our cars.

Directions and maps for everything is available here.

Jazzercise Tour de la Cure

2010-10-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

October is a huge month for Team Shelby:

Shelby was diagnosed in October 2001
Bay Area Walks to Cure Diabetes are in October
The Giants are making a playoff push this October

Then there's the Team Shelby Jazzercise Tour de la Cure that starts this Sunday! Team Shelby mom Liz was asked to lead the warm-up at each of the four JDRF Bay Area Chapter Walks to Cure Diabetes:

Oct. 3 - Silicon Valley (California's Great America in Santa Clara)
Oct. 17 - Monterey Bay (Lover's Point in Pacific Grove)
Oct. 23 - San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge)
Oct. 24 - East Bay (Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek)

Liz has done past warm-ups at three of the four Bay Area walks. It's a tremendous honor to be asked to warm-up all four of the walks. It's a great way to use our skills in a small way to help make Walk day a little more special.

We'll load up photos and videos from each Tour stop as we build excitement toward Team Shelby's trek across the Golden Gate Bridge!

Get Your Team Shelby Gear

2010-09-15T23:07:00.000-07:00

Get your Team Shelby gear today!

We have hoodies, workout tanks and workout T's for $25 each. Regular T-shirts are $15. (add $2 for XXL & XXXL sizes)

Hoodie

Get a combo pack (a T-shirt plus one $25 item) for $35!

Sizes

Hoodies & T-shirts: S-XXXL; youth S-XL; Black
Workout Tanks & T's: S, M & L

It's a great deal, and a terrific way to show your Team Shelby spirit on walk day and all year long. Plus, you'll appreciate the hoodie on walk day as we cross the Golden Gate Bridge!

Send your order to teamshelby@yahoo.com TODAY! Deadline is October 5th.

Magic of the Small Gift

2010-08-28T23:34:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't love a great gift? Most women would love to rip the paper off a little blue box emblazoned "Tiffany." For many men, a massive flat-screen TV to catch the upcoming football season would be a dream come true.

But what about the plaster-cast handprint your kindergartener gave you for Mother's Day? Or the family portrait your First-Grader produced for a class project? Or the hand-crocheted afghan your grandmother shipped across the country just in time for Christmas?

Which gift will be locked away in your memories forever? My guess is the handprint, portrait and afghan will be lovingly stored in a hope chest someplace as a keepsake for years to come, while the Tiffany box will eventually be recycled and the TV dumped for the next 'great' thing.

It's the small, sincere jestures that are the most heartfelt and have the greatest impact.

That's why we've always advocated $20 donations for Team Shelby. Of sure, we welcome the $100 gifts, and surely won't turn away even more. But it's those $20 gifts that represent a real sacrifice or purposeful action that really make us stop and thank God for our family and friends.

If you do the math, $20 is pretty easy for most of us to budget on payday. How many $5 lattes a week do you really need, anyway? Maybe you could do without four this month and donate the 20 bucks. If five people donate just $20 each, suddenly we have $100 going to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes. It adds up in a hurry!

We certainly understand the financial stress many of us are under these days. And we wouldn't ask anyone to blow out their budget (Dave Ramsey would kill us; or at least revoke our FPU Coordinator status!).

But consider putting a little aside regularly for Team Shelby, and join dozens of others in making real strides toward a cure!

Isn't It Ironic?

2010-08-27T06:16:00.000-07:00

Since we launched the "Team Shelby Snack Bar" at Scott's work last week, he's had two experiences that bring home the fact that we've done a poor job of educating people about Type I Diabetes and autoimmune diseases, in general.

"Isn't it ironic," the conversations with two different colleagues at different times began, "that you're selling chocolate and snack food to fight diabetes? I mean, is that really a good message?"

These are earnest, educated people offering textbook wisdom about diabetes: You can't eat sugar, and eating Snickers bars gives you diabetes.

Let's just say, right off, that it's not really their fault. That's what we hear all the time about Diabetes. But that advice and regimen applies mostly to Type 2 Diabetes - the relatively kinder, gentler version that is impacting tens of millions of Americans annually and becoming an alarming epidemic particularly among teens and children as obesity has become a real national health problem in our country.

But for people with Type 1 Diabetes - the version Shelby has had since she was 2 and the type Scott was diagnosed with just last year - sugar and snacks didn't cause their disease, and doesn't significantly worsen their prognosis if they are managing things correctly. Type 1 is growing annually at a worldwide clip of about 6%, which has the doctors pretty concerned because they can't tell you why this happening or really what to do about it.

THE DIFFERENCE

Type 1 Diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means that for unknown reasons the body kills the insulin-producing beta cells located in the pancreas. The result is an inability to produce any insulin, a hormone that moves sugar from the blood stream into all the cells of the body where it is used for energy. Without insulin, blood sugars rise resulting in a whole list of really bad health impacts on nearly every part of the body.

When we eat, the carbohydrates in food break down as the sugar we need to power our bodies. Whether those carbs come from a Snickers bar or a carrot, people with Type 1 Diabetes have to calculate their carbohydrate intake and provide enough insulin to allow the resulting sugar to be absorbed from the blood stream.

That doesn't mean Type 1 Diabetes patients can go nuts! Nobody should have excess sugar or loads of carbs in their diets! It's just not good for any of us.

In Type 2 Diabetes, the pancreas is either beginning to produce less insulin because the patient is older, or the pancreas can't produce enough insulin because the patient is overweight. In those cases, doctors try to help patients achieve a balance of food intake, exercise and insulin production. Restricted diets, workouts and medications that enhance the absorption of insulin are usually part of the regimen.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Shelby and Scott love their snacks! They know that two cookies containing 20 grams of carb means they have to take one unit of insulin. (And, really, who needs more than one serving of cookies at a time!) They'll be that way for the rest of their lives with everything they eat, unless we can find a cure.

The real irony here is that people more easily donate to the JDRF and Type 1 Diabetes research if they are getting something in return. In the case of the Team Shelby Snack Bar, their $1 donation gets them a snack - and hopefully a little awareness.

To the Golden Gate!

2010-04-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

We just heard that the route for the 2010 Walk to Cure Diabetes in San Francisco is going over the Golden Gate Bridge! We had a blast last year just looking at the bridge from Crissy Field. Imagine actually going over it!

Plan now to join us on October 23, 2010, in San Francisco and join Team Shelby in walking the bridge. We're working on a cool shirt/hoodie design to commemorate this great event!

(Thanks to Pastor Mike Trimble for taking this beautiful picture.)

A Fantastic Day in SF!

2009-10-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

It was beautiful & sunny Saturday at the 2009 Walk to Cure Diabetes at Crissy Field in San Francisco. While fog played cat and mouse with the Golden Gate Bridge throughout the day, Team Shelby was cozy in their new hoodie sweatshirts, which came off and on as the wind would fade then bluster. We had a terrific turnout and a ton of fun!

Enjoy the photos and read Shelby's take on the day on her blog.

Liz, with an assist from Alex and her great-niece Annabelle, led the warm-up for the estimated 1,500 walkers there to raise money and show support for a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

We have so many stories to share and be thankful for:

We had family members from Covina and Lompoc who traveled up for the weekend. Scott's sister Marianne with her husband Brian and their boys Aaron & Nathan joined us for the first time in a couple of years. Our house feels just a little too quiet now that Liz's niece Amanda, 'adopted' niece Natasha, and Annabelle, Gabby and Alexandra have returned home.
Our baseball buddy continued his fabulous support for Team Shelby. We met Mark Faver and his buddy Ricco at the Giants game three years ago, and they've been fantastic Team Shelby supporters ever since. Ricco couldn't make the Walk this year, but Mark brought his wife Nancy and daughter Amanda along with him from Elk Grove, near Sacramento.
Our terrific American Canyon crew turned out in force. All our Jazzercise friends and there families have been a consistent and tremendous support to Team Shelby and our family, many from the very first day Shelby was diagnosed 8 years ago. Though there are too many to list without surely leaving someone out, we couldn't do what we do with each of you.

Our hearts and prayers also go out to the huge number of Team Shelby members who were sidelined this year with medical issues and the flu. We hope you all recover quickly, and plan on joining us in October 2010 when we go back to Crissy Field.

This was our first year at the San Francisco Walk, after our favorite Napa walk was moved over to Santa Rosa. The setting couldn't be more beautiful. Crissy Field is located right on the shore of San Francisco Bay with views of the Golden Gate Bridge to the west, Alcatraz to the east and the San Francisco skyline to the south. The walk was a flat 2-mile loop around the meadow and pond. Aside from competing with the bicyclists and joggers it was a great stroll. There also was a 4-mile hike through parts of the Presidio, which Patti & Mike Schnieders and Gina Osborn of Team Shelby went on and said had terrific views! Plus, there was Walktober Fest over at Sports Basement sponsored by Gordon Biersch.

We want to thank everyone for their unbelievable support this year! You guys were a terrific support through Liz's Labor Day surgery, and helped with all the last-minute Team Shelby organizing and, of course, walk day.

Enjoy the photos to re-live the day, or experience it vicariously. We can't wait to see you all in 2010!

Vital Walk Day Info

2009-10-15T22:42:00.000-07:00

Can you believe the 2009 Walk to Cure Diabetes is just the day after tomorrow? It's already here!

Team Shelby is going to San Francisco for the first time this year. The walk is at Crissy Field, 610 Old Mason Street in the Presidio. >>click for a map >>

Registration starts at 10 a.m. with the walk at 11 a.m. Leave plenty of time for parking.

There's tons going on Saturday:

The regular walk
A special 4-mile hike
Raffle
Walktober beer fest donated by Gordon Biersch for anyone who's raised $100 or more
Plus more!

Of course, we'll have the famous Team Shelby cake (provided by our friend Stacey), too!

Here's a link to all the information you'll need for walk day plus more!

See you there!

Countdown to Saturday

2009-10-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

The Walk to Cure Diabetes is this Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco! We are so excited about the walk this year and everyone coming into town to participate, and our local friends who are planning the trip to SF for the morning. It should be a beautiful day on SF Bay!

Of course, it's never to late to either donate to the JDRF online through teamshelby.blogspot.com or by bringing donations on walk day (checks only, please).

Here are some pictures from last year's SF Walk:

Join us so we can add your pictures and thoughts to our Walk to Cure Diabetes album!

See you there!

Order Your Team Shelby T-shirt Today!

2009-10-02T22:21:00.001-07:00

This is it! The deadline to order 2009 Team Shelby T-shirts is Sunday!

We're doing a beautiful chocolate brown T-shirt this year for only $15.

Because we're walking in San Francisco this year, we're also doing a sweatshirt for only $25.

Order a T-shirt and sweatshirt combo for only $35.

They come in junior sizes, and adult small through XXL!

Email us at teamshelby@yahoo.com or call Team Shelby HQ. Move fast!

Getting It in Gear

2009-09-29T22:37:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, it's been a really tough late summer for us here at Team Shelby HQ. But Liz is on the mend, and we are coming out of the fog of emergency surgery to realize we are just a few short weeks from the Oct. 17 Walk to Cure Diabetes!

Now's the time to get signed up for the walk. >>Sign-up here!>>

Support your favorite Team Shelby family walker, including Shelby herself, through the links at the right side of this page!

We know it's a very tough economy, but each $20 gift really adds up in a hurry!

You guys have always been there for us, and we appreciate it more than you can know.

Because You Donated......

2009-08-07T21:16:00.000-07:00

Researchers around the globe are pursuing new discoveries, therapies and devices in the never-ending search for the causes, cures and treatments for Type I Diabetes. The JDRF, a non-profit founded by parents determined to find a cure for their children, is the largest non-governmental supporter of Type I Diabetes research in the world!

Because of your donation, no matter how large or small.......

The dream of a device that automatically reads and supplies insulin as required (an artificial pancreas) is within reach. >> READ ABOUT IT >>
Researchers discovered how to convert pancreas cells in mice into insulin-producing cells. >> READ ABOUT IT >>
UCSF doctors discovered that two common cancer drugs can prevent and reverse Type I Diabetes in mice. >> READ ABOUT IT >>
The JDRF and Novartis create a four-year program to get new drugs from the research bench to patients. >> READ ABOUT IT >>

We are beginning to see some of the discoveries and tools we only dreamed about 8 years ago entering human trials or moving toward trials.

All this work takes money, plain and simple. That's why we walk every year to raise money to help the JDRF fund life-changing research. Whether you give $5, $20 or $100, every gift is greatly appreciated. It really does make a difference in the lives of real people, like our Shelby.

2009 Walk Season Kick-off This Sunday

2009-07-14T22:09:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Walk to Cure Diabetes is fast approaching!

Team Shelby will participate in the San Francisco walk this year. Liz did the warm-up at the SF walk last year, and it's quite a change of pace from the North Bay event we've been doing in Napa the past couple of years. It will be held Oct. 17 at Crissy Field with great views of the Golden Gate Bridge! We're looking into Team Shelby sweatshirts this year rather than the traditional T-shirts; it can be pretty chilly by the Bay.

This Sunday, we'll be joining other SF walk families on a motor yacht on the Bay getting amped up for the upcoming walk. We'll take lots of pictures and post them so all of you can enjoy the day vicariously.

Team Shelby is now on Facebook! We launched an official 'cause' and are already up to 58 members through Facebook. Join us and share Team Shelby with your friends!

New blog to share

2008-12-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

A friend of Team Shelby turned us on to a new website called 'Betes Babe started by a former work colleague with Type I who started her own business selling diabetes related shirts and jewelry.

Ann Peyrat was diagnosed when she was 16. But she didn't like the term 'diabetes,' because it sounded so negative. So she started calling it 'betes because she thought it was cuter and less intimidating considering she was going to have it the rest of her life.

Anyway, just days after our friend Nora for Lompoc mentioned her, Scott ran across a news interview with her >>click for the interview>>. Realizing that all things happen for a reason, it was time to share her with all of you.

You can find Ann's website at www.betesbabe.com. We'll add her to our Team links, too.

Fund-raising Update

2008-12-07T09:17:00.000-08:00

We're close! Oh, so close to the magical $5,000 figure!

According to the latest tally on the official JDRF Walk Central website, Team Shelby has raised $4,899.58 in the 2008 Walk to Cure Diabetes. That's a mere $100.42 away from reaching the Silver Award level of fundraising!

In a year as financially troubled as this one, that's an amazing job turned in by everyone. But it also will mean just the second time in team history that we've fallen short of reaching the $5,000 Silver Award level.

This year's walk is still open from a fund-raising perspective into the spring. So if you know anyone who wants to claim another $100.42 in charitable donations on their taxes, this is a great opportunity!

Seriously, though, thank you to all of you for your hard work! It was a tremendous walk this year, and we look forward to another great walk in 2009!

Building Team Shelby

2008-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's been six years since we launched Team Shelby. The support of our friends and family have been fantastic! The way we've been embraced by friends of our friends and family, including lots of people we've never met, is truly inspiring.

After six years, it's time to make a couple of changes to improve communications among Team Shelby members. Until now, we've relied on individual e-mails that we're afraid are landing in spam filters. Honestly, our e-mail list has gotten to the size that we need to develop a more organized e-mail system. We also want to make sure our members have chosen to get e-mails from us, an opt-in relationship that we value greatly at our house.

We've started a Yahoo group exclusively for Team Shelby members. The purpose of this group is to send regular e-mail updates to keep you in touch with the latest Team Shelby news. We've posted a convenient subscription link to each site in the Team Shelby family of websites, including the Research Corner, Shelby's Blog and A Dad's Blog.

In the near future, you'll get an e-mailed invitation to join the Team Shelby Yahoo Group called teamshelbytype1. We hope you consider staying with the Team, and helping us make year seven our best yet!

Farewell St. Supery!

2008-11-09T21:31:00.000-08:00

The North Bay Walk to Cure Diabetes is moving! This was our last walk at St. Supery Vineyards.

We've been at St. Supery for several years and enjoyed each and every walk at this fabulous venue. We'd never been to St. Supery before the walk moved there. We were so concerned about going from the East Bay walk to this new place that we went up early to check it out. We ended up tasting their terrific wine, joining their wine club and wholeheartedly joining this new North Bay walk.

Unfortunately, the majority of the committee that organizes the North Bay walk decided to move the walk to Santa Rosa next year. We don't think we'll be taking Team Shelby to that walk. For the majority of our walkers, Santa Rosa is just too remote.

After taking a tour of all the Bay Area walks this year to do the warm-ups, we're leaning toward taking Team Shelby to the San Francisco walk next year. The Crissy Field location is beautiful, if it is a little cold. We'll keep you posted as we firm up our plans.

In the meantime, remember all the great times we had at St. Supery! It was definitely a great time to remember. All our thanks to St. Supery for being terrific hosts!

Thank You 2008 Team Shelby!

2008-10-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

We had a fantastic walk on Saturday!

It was a beautiful day in a beautiful setting with tremendous team support and enthusiasm.

We had some terrific first-time walkers with Team Shelby, and lots and lots of long-time friends. For those who couldn't be there with us in person, we've got photos of the walk posted up already for everyone to enjoy.

We hope to have our fund-raising totals within a few weeks, and some news about next year's walk soon. If you still want to make an online donation, please do so using the links on this page.

We plan for you to hear from us more often during the year, including a new online group to help you stay connected.

Thanks again to everyone from the bottom of our hearts! None of this would be possible without the love and support you show us each and every day!

Simply Amazing

2008-10-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

In the final days before the Walk to Cure Diabetes each year, an incredible sense of gratitude and humility rolls over us here at Team Shelby HQ (which, as I hope all of you know, is most often our computer desk in the laundry room).

The amazing generosity of complete strangers who 'get it' is overwhelming! You all have some tremendous friends!

We got an envelope in the mail the other day from our good friend and Team Shelby member Mary Reiley. She and her husband Dan are retired and live in Nevada just the other side of Lake Tahoe; Mary used to work with Scott at the West County Times. Inside the envelope was a nice note expressing her regrets for not being able to come to the walk this year, and a pile of checks from family friends and more than a couple car club members, judging from the check designs.

Mary had organized them nicely with a roster of names, addresses and amounts with a total at the bottom. Most of the checks were for $25 from people none of us her at the HQ knows. But the total was several hundred dollars all in support of the mission of the JDRF!

These people are Mary's friends (some of them might be her husband Dan's friends too). They don't know us. They don't know Shelby. But they know Mary and that the work the JDRF is doing is important. They also know they can afford a $25 gift. When a pile of mostly small donations like that - people just doing their little bit to help - shows up in the mail, it really makes you stop and think. It's particularly interesting to see the kids' faces now that they are old enough to really understand what several hundred dollars means in terms of what's in their piggy banks!

Mary's is just the latest example. There are hundreds of these types of stories and incidents we get to see. It's an outward showing of just how many people are out there supporting this vital cause on behalf of Team Shelby.

There is no way of adequately saying 'Thank You' to all of you. Just know that every time you see the JDRF logo someplace, you are a part of that effort and really making a difference in the lives of real people, like Shelby.

Team Shelby Warm-Up Tour 2008 Hits Silicon Valley

2008-10-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

JDRF bigwigs were on hand Sunday when the Team Shelby Warm-Up Tour blew into Sunnyvale's Bayside Park! They were delighted Liz was on hand to provide the top quality warm-up the Napa walk veterans have come to know & love.

Liz made friends with Sharkie, the San Jose Sharks mascot!

Here are the pictures of the day taken by Alex and Scott. (Shelby was chief photographer in San Francisco.)

We've even got a short video!

Next stop on the Tour: St. Supery Vineyards, Napa County.

See you there!

Liz Takes SF Walk by Storm!

2008-10-18T20:44:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco JDRF Walk will never be the same! Now that they know what a real warm-up is all about, they'll have no choice but to have Team Shelby's very own queen of Jazzercise Liz back next year!

Aside from being chilly (mid-50s on the water under fog), the SF Walk this morning was great! Liz got the crowd all pumped and ready for their trek around Crissy Field. The emcee - who apparently tried to do the warm-up himself last year - said this year's warm-up was tons better.

The JDRF likes to incorporate the best from each walk to strengthen the other walks it does in the region. Liz's warm-up was part of that this year!

Tomorrow, the Silicon Valley walk in Sunnyvale!

Enjoy the pictures!

10 Days & Counting!

2008-10-15T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Shingles are just about beaten into submission!

The shirts are ordered!

Walk season is ready to start!

Liz was asked by the Greater Bay Area Chapter of the JDRF to do the warm-ups for nearly every walk the chapter puts on this year! The first one is Saturday at Crissy Field in San Francisco. Our very own Queen of Jazzercise spreading the love!

Great time for a last round of requests for your fund-raising. We know financial times are really tough. Remember to focus first on education about Type I Diabetes and Shelby, sharing why this is important to you, then offering an opportunity to support the effort. Seriously, small donations from the heart are tremendously powerful!

See you in Napa on Oct. 25 (or maybe in SF Saturday!)

First the Economy......Now, Shingles!

2008-10-09T13:21:00.001-07:00

The economy is in apparent free-fall. Unless you were wise when buying your house, your mortgage may be in trouble. The house next door might be vacant and bank-owned. Hopefully, your job and insurance are secure and your health is intact!

While we here at the Team Shelby HQ are doing fine financially, an unexpected demon has visited us: The Shingles!

For those of you who don't know, the shingles are an adult form of the chicken pox virus that impacts the nervous system. Aside from some pretty nasty looking sores, the key feature is a potpourri - or buffet, if you like - of every known variety of pain from the dull ache to the shooting & stabbing variety.

The shingles have put Liz nearly totally out of commission for almost two weeks now! She is slowly getting back to her college & Jazzercise schedule (she subbed out all her classes and cancelled juniors at the elementary school! So you know this is bad, bad stuff!).

But our Team Shelby organizing schedule was derailed there for a while during the critical month of September. We are relying on each and every one of you more than ever to do what you can to sign up walkers & raise donations this year!

We love you guys and know you are there pulling for us with your support and prayers. Use the online tools to reach your friends and family with requests for $20 donations - a little bit from lots of people adds up in a big, big hurry!

Diabetes is a circus

2008-09-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

Managing diabetes sure can feel like a 3-ring circus sometimes - the carb tracking, the supplies and equipment, the interactions with a host of interacting adults, the updates on the latest in research and clinical work, and, oh yeah, what's Shelby want to do with her life! Actually, having only three rings might be a welcome streamline!

But really I'm talking about the theme for this year's walk. It's going to be a circus theme!

For those of you who know our family fairly well, you know that a circus theme - particularly if there are clowns involved - is a true test of our devotion to the JDRF cause. You know that Shelby, in particular, is deathly afraid of clowns! Still we are gamely pressing forward!

To celebrate the circus theme, we are doing RED Team Shelby shirts this year! In the past, we've done blue, yellow, burgundy, white and, perhaps our all time favorite, the Aloha shirt! This year, its RED.

We're still working on pricing details (usually they are under $20 each), but we need to get your sizes. So e-mail in your size today (teamshelby@yahoo.com) and how many shirts you'll likely need. We'll confirm the other details shortly.

Let's Get It Started!

2008-09-16T21:20:00.000-07:00

Can you believe that it's mid-September already?! Seems like it was just the start of summer, but school is back in and the Halloween candy is popping up in the stores.

That means that the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes is just more than a month away! Time to get really serious about the fund-raising! As you can see, we have freshened up the website, and stocked it with all the tools you need to get the word out and the donations in.

With the challenges of the economy, it's going to be more important to ever to focus on education and eliciting lots of small donations. We've always found this to be the best strategy, anyway; and we've almost always been blessed with unexpectedly generous donations.

Hook back with us often or use one of the tools to subscribe to the main blog. We'll get the Team Shelby Research Corner up and running again, too. We may even get political (it's presidential election, time after all).

Keeping It Simple

2008-09-16T14:08:00.000-07:00

You can really outsmart yourself with computers and all the terrific web-based gadgetry out there!

I know, it happened to me! We created a really cool Team Shelby website two years ago using our Mac, which is fantastic. But we could only get to the website or make changes through our Mac. Well, life isn't always that convenient.

So, we are going to meld a couple of different platforms into a single web experience that we hope will keep you informed, entertained and linked to Team Shelby. We'll be including an easy way for you to subscribe to website updates and fun ways for you to talk back to us.

With that, we're up and running with our updated site here at teamshelby.blogspot.com!

Keep coming back for all the latest on the Oct. 25, 2008 Walk to Cure Diabetes at St. Supery and Peju, Napa Valley.

All new Team Shelby web site

2006-09-10T13:20:00.000-07:00

You should shortly be referred to our new site.

Feel free to bookmark the new address.

For your convenience, we will keep this one up and running for the foreseeable future.

Walk Photos are Here -- FINALLY!

2006-01-12T17:25:00.000-08:00

After a delay of WAY too much time, the 2005 Team Shelby Walk to Cure Diabetes photos are finally available!

We could talk about a litany of technical and other issues (none of which any of you will care about), but we won't. Instead we'll let you know that the photos -- and a really cool slideshow feature -- are here through our friends at Snapfish.com. The site will allow all team members to print out high quality prints of their choosing and have them shipped directly to your home.

The walk, held at St. Supery Winery, was the first event ever sponsored by the JDRF in the Napa Valley. They expected about 300 walkers, but approximately 600 showed up on walk day. The event raised about $150,000, not bad for a first year event. Combined with the other four Bay Area walks, the Bay Area Chapter of the JDRF raised $2.5 million this year through the benefit walks. A terrific amount to support all of their Type I diabetes research and advocacy work.

The 2005 walk season was really successful and full of fantastic firsts for Team Shelby:

We raised $9,200 this year bringing our four-year team total to nearly $30,000!
We fielded a Walk Team of more than 45 people, making Team Shelby one of the largest teams on walk day, family or corporate.
In our first year of corporate sponsors, we received the support of eight, each donating a minimum of $250 to earn a spot on our web site and T-Shirt.
We had a corporate T-shirt sponsor who underwrote the cost to provide free T-shirts to any Team Member who raised at least $100 in donations.
We were joined by the Vintage High School Key Club this year who helped spread the word about Team Shelby. We plan to reach out next year to more service clubs to educate the community about Type I Diabetes and what is being done to fight it.

Team Shelby had a fabulous year, but the real success is all the people who learned a little more about Type I diabetes through all of your efforts. Each and every one of you is what makes Team Shelby successful. We could not have done what we do without your support and encouragement.

We look forward to an even better 2006 with all of your help.

Local paper covered Walk!

2005-10-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

Big crowd gets valley diabetes walk started on the right foot

By PAT STANLEY, Register Staff Writer
Sunday, October 23, 2005 2:53 PM PDT

More than 600 people, from toddlers to seniors, marched in Napa's first-ever Walk to Cure Diabetes at St. Supery Winery in Rutherford Saturday.

"It was a great day," said Heather Haynes, outreach manager for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She had expected only about 400 would show up for the fundraiser.

Many marchers showed their support for young victims of the disease by sporting T-shirts emblazoned with team names such as Jacob's Crew, Hog Dog'n for Amber, the Needle Squadron and Jack the Bean Stalker.

For an hour before a ribbon was cut signaling the start of the two-mile trek, the crowd was entertained by the Napa High School Jazz Band, Violet the Clown and others.

Francisco Castillo of Vallejo donned a superhero costume and was joined by a young Batman and Superman. He vowed to form a "superhero team" for next year's North Bay walk.

Zachary Lee, 10, of Santa Rosa pulled up his shirt to proudly showed his insulin pump. His mother, Theresa, said, "We're looking for a cure for him."She said the pump device "has made our life better."

"Many people have old and wrong ideas about diabetes," she said. "Some people look down on you as a parent and think you fed your kids wrong (causing the disease)."

Lee's older sibling, Carson, wore a Disney character Goofy costume. "I'm doing it for my brother," he said.

Jack Castleberry of Napa is only 6, but it was his third walk. He was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes at age 3.

Tommy Fox was only 16 months old when diagnosed. "This is our fifth year," his father, Jim Fox, said. The boy has walked in prior events in San Francisco and Sacramento.

"It could happen to anybody," the father said. "Tommy had flu-like symptoms. It turned out it was diabetes. We almost lost him."

Officials said it will be a week or longer before they learn how much was raised by the event. Funds will be used for research that participants hope will someday lead to a cure.

Juvenile diabetes occurs when the body fails to produce insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into energy needed for daily life. Once diagnosed with the disease, patients must take insulin for the rest of their lives. Juvenile, or type one, diabetes can lead to devastating complications including kidney failure, blindness, heart disease, stroke and amputations. It can be fatal.

The Rutherford walk was one of 11 similar events already held or scheduled before July 2006 in the Bay Area.

For information about the disease, go online to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (Greater Bay Area Chapter) Web site at www.jdrf.org/greaterbay.

The Final Walk Details

2005-10-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

It is only days until the first Walk to Cure Diabetes steps off in the Napa Valley! Now is the time to wrap up some last minute details and make a final push to collect those straggling donations. But not to worry: Checks not available on walk day can be mailed to the JDRF Bay Area Chapter until Nov. 21.

Any Team Shelby members who have collected donations but cannot attend the Walk, you may mail your collected checks (all made out to the JDRF) to the Team Shelby HQ for us to turn in for you, or directly to the JDRF Bay Area Chapter with a notation that they were collected on behalf of Team Shelby (Corey).

Below is all the info you'll need to make this a tremendously successful walk day! If you have any questions, please let us know ASAP!

Walk Day Specifics:

Date: Saturday, October 22nd, 2005
Location: St. Supery Vineyards & Winery
Schedule
10:00 am Check-in Starts
10:00 am - 11:00 am Music, Food, Entertainment, Kids Corner, Silent Auction
11:00 am Walk Starts
11:45 am BBQ Hosted by Saturn at the Vineyard. Team Shelby will tailgate with some extras, so bring items to share!

Turning in Checks, Cash and Matching Gifts:

For checks over $250, please put the walker's name and team name in the Memo Line of the check.
For checks under $250, the canceled check is the walker's receipt.
Please convert all cash into checks made payable to JDRF.
Please include your Workplace Matching Gifts form in your Collection Envelope.
To speed the check-in process, every walker should have a FULLY COMPLETED and signed Collection Envelope. If you do not already have a collection envelope, please get one from a check-in volunteer and fill it out completely. DO NOT include online donations on your walk envelope.
NOTE: Please allow at least 4 weeks for us to process all money turned in on walk day.

Corporate or Family Team Walkers

Check-in tables will be organized alphabetically. Team Shelby will be listed under T, so look for our name on the correct sign.

JDRF T-Shirts & Incentive Prizes

Walkers turning in a minimum of $100 on Walk day will receive a 2005 Walk to Cure Diabetes T-Shirt, which will only be available on 10/22/05 and JDRF cannot send them to you.
For donations turned into JDRF before 11/21/05, incentive prizes will be mailed 8 weeks after the Walk & cannot be guaranteed by the holidays.

Directions to St. Supery Vineyards & Winery
8440 St. Helena Hwy (Hwy 29)
Rutherford, CA 94573
*Look for the twin palms

Click for Route Map

From the San Francisco Bay Bridge:

Take Interstate 80 east toward Sacramento/Reno. In Vallejo, take the Hwy 29/Marine World Parkway exit toward Napa. Turn right onto Hwy. 29 and follow signs north toward Calistoga.
Hwy. 29 is also called the "St. Helena Hwy." St. Supery is located 12 miles north of the town of Napa on Hwy. 29, between Oakville and Rutherford Crossroads. Look right as you head up valley for the tall twin palm trees at St. Supery's entrance.

From Sacramento:

Take Interstate 80 toward San Francisco. Exit at Hwy. 12 toward Napa, just beyond the Hwy. 680/80 interchange. Follow Hwy. 12 until it ends at Hwy. 29 and turn right. Follow the signs toward Calistoga.
See # 2 above.

From the Golden Gate Bridge:

Take Hwy. 101 north past the city of San Rafael. Take the Hwy. 29 exit toward Vallejo (east). Turn left at Hwy. 121/12 and follow signs to Napa. Hwy. 121/12 ends at Hwy. 29 just south of Napa - turn left and proceed up-valley toward the winery.
See # 2 above.

Parking is VERY limited, so please try to carpool. No bikes.

FREE T-Shirts!

2005-09-22T16:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the very generous support of Pat Maggard of Valley Dental of Napa and the personal donation of Jazzerciser Natalie Shugart, all Team Shelby walkers can get a FREE Team Shelby T-shirt this year!

Every walker who raises $100 will get a free shirt in the style of their choosing!

All T-shirt orders must be pre-paid this year by Oct. 1!

Click for details!

Our life with diabetes

2005-09-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

It’s 3:15 a.m. More than an hour ago I woke up to check Shelby’s blood sugar, my daily 2 a.m. ritual. Her number was 359; way over the 150-200 we like her to be at during the night. I give her insulin and note the information in our logbook in the kitchen. She’s been running high a lot lately during these overnight checks. What did she have for dinner again? Did I miscalculate something? Did the restaurant do something different with the Mexican rice we always get? She had two pieces of quesadilla, not three, right? The past two days, she’s been back in range by breakfast. I head back to bed, stepping over Shelby who sometime between my bedtime and 2 a.m. encamped on our bedroom floor in her Barbie sleeping bag.

Lying in bed, the questions continue to swirl in my head. Why has she been so high at night? Do we need to correct her insulin rates again? They were working great two weeks ago. We just changed them radically to adjust for her new school activities, but that shouldn’t impact her during the night, right? She’s not dipping nearly as low after recess at school, now. Most days she’s even eating her whole snack and lunch before scampering off to play on the swings with her school friends. She said something about a different nurse at school yesterday; I should probably check on that tomorrow. I’m way behind on checking up on my diabetes research news: note to self – check that tomorrow afternoon and update Team Shelby website. Maybe I should have extended her dinner insulin dose; rice kicks in later sometimes. Second note to self – Mention nurse situation to Liz in the morning; have her ask about it if the school calls her at work after checking Shelby for snack. Liz should probably ask at the office after school. Third note to self – remember to take Team Shelby corporate sponsorship pack to the car dealer tomorrow. Maybe I should get caught up on my research reading now.

Our life with diabetes never stops. All parents worry. It’s just that most don’t worry about whether they used the right measuring cup when doling out Cheerios in the morning. Or what to do about a daughter who declares the school snack you packed “took too long to eat” so she didn’t finish it before hitting the playground. No wonder the school reports Shelby’s blood sugar was a perilous 42 before lunch; she blacks out at 35. Normal is 70-100. What snack can I pack that eats fast?

Shelby never complains about her disease. She’s never asked why she has it and other kids don’t. She doesn’t flinch at the shots or finger pricks anymore. She’s even gotten good at running her insulin pump herself. But is it any wonder that studies find parents of children with diabetes display high levels of anxiety, apprehension and worry. What if something I do jeopardizes her ability to have children someday, go off to college, limits her ability to become a veterinarian like she talks about, or causes blindness or organ failure. Dads protect their kids from this stuff, right? I don't want pity; I want a cure.

So one meal, one snack, one quarterly doctor’s visit, one step at a time we’ll just fight this disease and hope beyond all hope that the promise of a cure comes through in her lifetime.

Brand new research information

2005-09-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

As we work hard this time of year to increase participation and support for Team Shelby, it is natural that people have more questions. Even long-time supporters wonder what's going on with all the research? And just what does the JDRF fund anyway?

In the latest edition of the JDRF Research Frontline, they carried three short items describing the breadth of the work being done in regard to Type I Diabetes. They include:

FDA approval of an antibotic to fight the most common form of diabetes-related blindness,
advancements toward a continual blood sugar monitoring system, and
groundbreaking work in the use of adult stem cells.

I've posted the items in the Team Shelby Research Corner. Here's a link that should take you to a pdf of the newsletter, as well.

Printing out Frontline for distribution to potential donors is a great way to express clearly and authoritatively what the JDRF is doing daily to fight this disease.

New Corporate Sponsorship Program

2005-09-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

Team Shelby is proud to announce the launch of our inaugural Corporate Sponsorship program. It is the first time we've offered local companies the opportunity to support the work of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

We have established three levels of support allowing participating companies and organizations to have their logos appear on the official Team Shelby T-Shirts, our website and all of our literature.

We're very excited that Team Superstores Chevrolet-Hyundai of Vallejo has stepped forward as our very first Silver Sponsor! The Team Chevrolet sponsorship came about because one of Liz's Jazzercise students who works there asked her boss to get involved. And he said, "Yes."

You may be wondering: Why would we seek corporate support given our three years of tremendous work and the successful donation of more than $25,000 through the extraordinary efforts by our friends, family and co-workers?

It's a fair question. The Answer is simple: We want to reach and exceed our $10,000 annual fund-raising goal, set a new goal, and continue to educate the community about Type I Diabetes and the amazing research going into finding a cure. We hope that because countless people just like you have joined Team Shelby through heart-felt donations ranging from $10 to hundreds of dollars, the business community will be inspired to join our efforts.

We are sending Corporate Sponsorship packets to local businesses we patronize. Please consider joining in.

If you represent a business and want to get involved, please download the information and consider the opportunity. We aren't hard-sell experts. We want individuals and businesses to act from their own sense of what is right. If you are an employee, use the information and our basic Team Shelby fund-raising letter to approach your boss. Remember, many companies also have matching donation programs; usually the HR folks know about those.

For any questions, email us at TeamShelby@yahoo.com.

We look forward to continuing to add the logos of our Inaugural Corporate Sponsors to our website and Team Shelby T-shirts.

As always, thank you all for your support and creative fund-raising ideas.

Liz Gives Kickoff Keynote Speech

2005-08-20T12:25:00.000-07:00

Liz was asked to give the personal story at the JDRF kickoff luncheon in August.

We have the pictures and the moving speech, which helps remind us all what Team Shelby is all about.

Cheers.

JDRF Walk Comes to Napa on a Saturday!

2005-08-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

The North Bay Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation is holding it inaugural Walk to Cure Diabetes this year in Napa County! So far, Team Shelby is one of only two registered family teams that has ever participated in a JDRF Walk.

The Walk is scheduled for Saturday Oct. 22 at St. Supery vineyards. The captain kickoff luncheon is next week so we'll have tons more details after that.

The picture at right is of the main house at St. Supery off Highway 29 in the heart of Napa County wine country. The photo is taken from the top of a two-story wine production facility that offers self-guided tours of the entire wine-making process and a very comfortable tasting room, for those who are interested.

October is just after the main harvest and the grape vines should start turning their fall colors about then.

We decided to participate in the new Napa County walk rather than the East Bay Walk in Walnut Creek that we've been doing for three years for a couple of reasons. First, it's in Napa County where we live and is a much easier highway drive than going to Walnut Creek. Second, the event is on a Saturday, which hopefully will make travel easier for our out-of-town guests and allow our local supporters who may have standing Sunday plans to participate.

Stay tuned for more details of the Oct. 22 Walk. While you're here, take some time to check out some of the recent posts: lots of inspirational stories and research information is on the site.

Hybrid diabetes

2005-07-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

We are working on some new ideas for fund-raising and Team activities for the upcoming walk season. Until we have news on that front, here are some of the latest diabetes-related headlines.

A hybrid diabetes?
Doctors think they may have discovered a form of diabetes that presents as Type II in teens then develops into full-blown Type I diabetes. The result is young patients faced with a wide range of both symptoms and multiple treatment regimes. >>Learn more>>

UC San Francisco a leader in stem cell & diabetes research
With stem cell research so much in the news lately with all the debates in Washington, here is a story about the role UCSF has played on an international front in developing new stem cell techniques through private funding sources. Includes a short story on the work to find a cure for diabetes.>>Learn more>>

4-year-old Lobbies Congress
Michigan girl and her mother, who both have diabetes, go to Washingon D.C. to lobby Congress for more funding for diabetes research. The girl, who hopes the trip will cure her disease, is crushed when her mother explains there is no magic cure in the halls of Congress. >>Learn more>>

After-school club for kids with diabetes in Delaware

2005-05-24T18:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a great story I recommend everyone read.

There is nothing more nerve-wracking than sending your child with diabetes off to school everyday not knowing for sure whether she is going to the support she needs on campus from the adults there or how the kids are going to treat her.

Here's a story about a school district in Wilmington, Delaware, where they have an afterschool club for kids with diabetes where they learn about giving themselves shots, checking their own blood sugars and not using the disease as a reason to give up. Great story! Send the reporter a note letting her know how much we appreciate her work!

Students help each other cope with disease
Never before had Justin Laznik felt the stab from a shot of insulin he injected himself. Sure, the 9-year-old had pricked his finger for what seemed like zillions of times to test his blood sugar. That's what he learned to do after he was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes last year. He tests his blood four or more times a day.

But it was his mom or dad or, during school, his school nurse, Loretta Newsom, who poked his stomach with the doses of insulin that make up for what isn't made inside his body.

Justin knew his friend, Robert Mixon, a fifth-grader at Cedar Lane Elementary School in Middletown, injected himself. He'd even seem him do it. Robert also talked about how he pays careful attention to his diabetes by checking his blood regularly and carrying a juice box in case his blood sugar runs low.

So, at the last meeting of the Sugar Busters diabetic club, Justin aimed the insulin pen at his stomach and pushed the plunger, administering his first shot. "No big deal," he shrugged when talking about it the next day, though his wide grin betrayed his stoic words.

Learn more

Inspiring story/stem cells and faith

2005-05-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

It's been quite some time since we've updated the site. I'm back on top of things and should return to the habit of posting regular updates from the world of diabetes research and happenings as well as fund-raising ideas and information for the upcoming walk in October. Here is some interesting reading:

A Sunday stroll could bring a cure to millions
For Buffalo News columnist Jerry Sullivan, juvenile diabetes became very real after learning that the 9-year-old son of a childhood friend had been recently diagnosed. Sullivan had marveled for years at the sports figures he covered who played while treating themselves for diabetes. With the disease striking so close to home, Sullivan writes about his new motivation to join the Walk to Cure Diabetes.
Learn more

Stem-cell research: A matter of faith?
Advances in medical science can cause troubling conflicts for those holding dear religious beliefs. Stem cell research is the current lightning rod for the debate with many pro-life advocates erroneously linking stem cell work with abortion. The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal carried a story about a community of Methodists and Southern Baptists who support stem cell research at a time when many conservative Christians oppose the work of clinicians to find new treatments for a host of chronic illnesses, including Type I Diabetes.
Click the link below for the story of visit the family's Web site at www.pfaith.org.
Learn more

Mid-February update

2005-02-20T11:55:00.000-08:00

We've gotten word of several very exciting new research efforts and a very ambitious new initiative by the JDRF we'd like to share with all of you.

The sheer diversity of the approaches and efforts being used to tackle discovery of the causes and cures of Type I diabetes is simply amazing. Clearly, this disease has captured the curiosity of some of the world's best and brightest scientists. We hope that someday their efforts will eradicate this disease or at least make it easily treated so other children won't have to experience life limitations like Shelby does.

$1 billion in 5 years for research
The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has announced it's goal of generating $1 billion in the next five years to take Type I Diabetes research from the laboratory into practical applications to improve the lives of real people. This is a very exciting opportunity.
Learn more

Progress in transplants for diabetes
Doctors believe anti-inflammatory drugs may be useful in increasing the success of islet transplants. These common medications may improve the viability of donor insulin-producing islet cells allowing better success rates in diabetes patients.
Learn more

Improving pancreas-kidney transplant outcomes
Researchers at UC San Francisco are exploring using non-steroid immunosuppressive drugs to improve organ acceptance in one of the most invasive diabetes treatment operations now performed.
Learn more

Gene-disease connections studied
In this pretty technical article, a UC San Francisco researcher talks about his work in decoding part of the genetic mystery that may allow doctors in the future to suppress certain protein interactions to prevent serious diseases, including diabetes.
An exciting part of this article is that the researcher involved relocated his lab from MIT to UCSF, which says a lot about the level of commitment and medical care available locally for us to help Shelby.
Learn more

Fast-tracking beta cell studies
UCSF researchers have joined the national team of scientists working on learning how to produce new beta cells for injection into the pancreas of someone with diabetes. Beta cells are the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas that are destroyed by an autoimmune reaction that leads to diabetes.
Learn more

Can anti-oxidant prevent diabetic complications?
That's the enticing question researchers are bringing to a common anti-oxidant compound know to lesser some of known complications of diabetes. Now, they are running a trial to see if the compound not only treats symptoms, but can actually prevent them. This is new research just starting, so results won't for forthcoming for a while. Still, very exciting!
Learn more

Live donor breakthrough; some inspiration

2005-02-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

Successful living islet cell transplant
A daughter with Type I diabetes successfully received insulin-producing islets cells from her mother pancreas, the BBC has reported.

The procedure performed at Kyoto University Hospital in Japan opens new possibilities for a curative surgery for those with diabetes. The report indicated that within minutes of the surgical implant, the cells were producing insulin in the daughter's pancreas.

Previously, islet cells transplants involved deceased donors. The cells were often damaged and there was an increased risk of rejection. Using a live donor reduces these risks.

More research is needed, but this is another exciting breakthrough in battling diabetes.
Learn more

Disease is no barrier to young athlete
One of the aspects of diabetes people tend to focus on is what the patient can't do: Carb intake needs to be monitored; Can't leave the house with a test kit: Can't go on long trips without careful planning.

What we've always emphasized is all the things Shelby CAN do. The sky is the limit, she just has to be more aware of her physical body than other people.

Slam Sports in Canada ran a recent story about Rob Chappell who plays hockey for the University of Nebraska. Not only is ice hockey a major contact sport, it takes lots of stamina and energy.

Yet Chappell has found ways to excel through careful management of his diabetes, which he's had for 12 years. He carbo-loads like crazy before games to keep his blood sugar up while his muscles work.

The best tribute comes from Rob Clarke, an NHL hall of fame player from the 1970s: "If you can put the puck in the net, who cares if you've got diabetes?"
Learn more

Stem cell discovery; New comic book

2005-01-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of new items of interest. It never ceases to amaze me
what's going on out there in the world surrounding diabetes. Medical
science around the globe is focusing on the causes and cures, while
seemingly every child experiencing it for the first time is finding a
unique way to channel the experience.

Doctors use patient's own stem cells to treat diabetes

Doctors in Argentina announced a new procedure that improved the
insulin-producing ability of a man with Type II diabetes whose pancreas
had stopped making insulin, the Inter Press Service news agency reported
Jan. 11, 2005.

By extracting stem cells from the man's bone marrow during a 10-minute
procedure and inserting them into his pancreas, doctors induced his
pancreas to start making insulin. While this was no full cure, the man's
condition improved to that of an average Type II diabetes patient,
meaning it can be controlled with diet, exercise and some oral
medications. A long ways from being dependent on insulin injections

Doctors haven't done broader studies nor do they know whether this
method would help those with Type I diabetes. However, they said there
is little risk in the procedure and no apparent negative implications,
other than it just wouldn't work.

Even lacking a large controlled study, doctors said this could open
whole new avenues in diabetes research.
Learn more

Boy creates diabetes comic book
An 11-year-old boy with diabetes in Kansas City, Kan., has created a
comic book called "Omega Boy," to both express his own anger and
frustration with the disease and to educate others about his condition,
according to the Kansas City Star.

Kamaal Washington and his younger brother Macolm, both of whom are rabid
comics fans, teamed up on the effort.

Kamaal said the idea came to him while he was in the hospital after he
was diagnosed. During what I've come to refer to as 'diabetes boot
camp,' Kamaal was given a lot of pamphlets to read to help him
understand what was going on with his body.

The language was difficult, so he decided to make a comic book to put
all that stuff into language that he and other kids could understand.
In the comic, the recently diagnosed boy become so angry he absorbs a
doctor, becomes 'Doctor Diabetes' and launches on a global effort to
give the disease to as many people as possible so they'll understand
what he's going through. The hero, Omega Boy, finally sets him straight.

No wonder Kamaal was a part of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation
Children's Congress that goes to Washington to lobby legislators on
issues surrounding the impacts of diabetes. What a well-spoken advocate!

Learn more

Happy 2005!

2005-01-01T18:00:00.000-08:00

We've redesigned for 2005!

As you can tell, we have a new look for the new year. We've made every attempt to keep everything where you can find it, but bugs may crop up.

We're very excited about 2005! We hope to keep in contact with you all this year and expand our Web presence. We're also working on new fund-raising opportunities to help Team Shelby reach $10,000 in '05!

2004 was a great year. We raised more than $8,000 for the East Bay Walk to Cure Diabetes, our best fund-raising effort yet.

Individual and group efforts driven by many of you made that happen:

Nicole, daughter of Lori Fischer of the Solano County Public Defender's office, was inspired by her mom's fund-raising. So, she sat down everyone in her law firm one day, passed out our fund-raising letter and asked everyone to consider donating. She raised over $400! Way to go, Nicole!

Napa Junction Elementary School stepped up this year with a great poster and hand-signs to show their support for Shelby, a new student at the school.

Members of the car club Mary Reiley, of the West County Times, is a member of spontaneously donated $10 each over coffee when Mary mentioned her support of Team Shelby.

Van Nuys Elementary School made Team Shelby the center of a classroom section on health. Shelby's grandma Pam headed up a coin drive and collected more than $500 in change the students donated.

Our fund-raising letter also was selected by the Bay Area JDRF Chapter as an example of an excellent letter. It will become part of the team packets for this year.

We've posted some new material, so spend some time with us.

New in Research

2005-01-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

High Blood Sugar Decreases Classroom Performance
A temporary rise in blood glucose (sugar) levels in people with both types of diabetes can interfere with their ability to think quickly and solve problems, according to a study in the January issue of Diabetes Care.

Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System (UVHS) found that people who had both type 1 and type 2 diabetes performed poorly on math and verbal tests when they became hyperglycemic, a condition in which blood glucose levels are higher than normal. Symptoms of hyperglycemia include high blood glucose, high levels of sugar in the urine, frequent urination, and increased thirst. Roughly 55 percent of the people in the study showed signs of cognitive slowing or increased errors while hyperglycemic, suggesting that the consequences of hyperglycemia vary among individuals. However, among those whose cognitive performance deteriorated when blood sugar levels rose, the negative effects consistently appeared once levels reached or exceeded a threshold of 15 mmol/l or 270 mg/dl. Learn more

Pregnancy Can Go Well For Women with Type I Diabetes
Women with type 1 diabetes who monitor their blood glucose daily both before and during pregnancy have better outcomes, Danish researchers report.

In the largest study to date of pregnant women with type 1 diabetes, Dr. Dorte M. Jensen of Odense University Hospital and colleagues found that only one-third of women said they monitored their blood sugar levels every day around the time they conceived.

Daily monitoring and good overall control of blood glucose levels were associated with a lower likelihood of infant mortality and birth defects. Learn more

Federal Govt., JDRF Launch Resource for Diabetic Kidney Disease Gene Studies
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced today the availability of the largest single collection of biosamples and data for research on the genetic causes of kidney disease in type 1 diabetes.

The Genetics of Kidneys in Diabetes (GoKinD) collection has nearly 10,000 DNA, serum, plasma and urine samples, plus genetic and clinical data, from more than 1,700 adults with type 1 diabetes in the United States and Canada. Of those, 818 have had diabetes at least 10 years and have developed kidney disease, a common complication of diabetes. The other 893 have had diabetes at least 15 years but do not have kidney disease. Also in the collection are data and samples from 1,096 parents (548 sets). Learn more

The Latest in News

2005-01-01T17:06:00.000-08:00

Heart drives Illinois legislator's stem-cell convictions
In the four years since his then-7-year-old daughter Reynolds was diagnosed with type I diabetes, Tom Cross has gotten used to seeing her stick herself with insulin needles a half-dozen times a day.

He's gotten used to the frequent doctor's visits, the strict monitoring of her diet and the constant worries about how the disease might effect her long-term health.

But even after four years, it hasn't gotten any easier.

"As a father, it rips your heart out," said the Oswego Republican, who was elected last month to a second term as House minority leader. "Every time I watch her doing all the things she has to do, it's like getting punched in the stomach." Learn more

Pittsburgh, Pa., teen a fund-raising phenom
As part of the local recognition of outstanding local teens, 16-year-old girl recognized for raising $15,125 for her local JDRF walk this year.

She's raised $90,000 so far and hopes to top $100,000 before she leaves for college. Learn more

Arizona woman seeks living kidney donor
She was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes at age 6. Since then, she's suffered nearly every complication of the disease: vision impairment, amputation, kidney failure.

Now at age 40, she and her family are seeking a live kidney donor to help save her life.

She offers a cautionary. Her struggle also is a vivid reminder why we watch Shelby so closely and are so determined to cure this disease. Learn more

College student struggles with diabetes.
Diabetes is a disease affecting more than 210,000 people under the age of 20, including many students at the University of Alabama. It's a disease that not only cripples a person's health, but also his or her schedule -- a battle for any student.

Class, clubs, homework and jobs are enough to keep any student busy. But some students at the University of Alabama must attempt to manage their school activities in addition to frequent trips to the doctor and interruptions during the day to take medicine regulating diabetes. Learn more

JDRF 2004 awards

2004-12-25T18:39:00.000-08:00

More awards photos

It was a night of inspiration and celebration. Back at the San Ramon Marriott where the Walk to Cure Diabetes 2004 season kicked off, it concluded Dec. 6 with an awards ceremony and update on how much we raised this year. The magic number was $850,000 for the East Bay walk held in Walnut Creek with 2,500 participants. The four Bay Area walks together raised $2.2 million. Since the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation was started, it has raised some $800 million for diabetes research. Learn more

Walk photos are here!

2004-10-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

We've posted some of the dozens of photos from the 2004 Walk to Cure Diabetes at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek. The photo link at the left will take you right there.

We had a great time! For technical reasons, we can't post all the ones we have right now. We're exploring other methods of posting even more great shots!

Also read below for the financial results of all your hard work!

Thanks again. You are all great!

Walk Totals.....$800,000

2004-10-10T20:53:00.000-07:00

The preliminary totals for the East Bay Walk for a Cure to Diabetes are in....We raised $800,000! With pledges and other money still rolling in, that figure is sure to grow.

Of the total, family teams accounted for $335,000! So far, Team Shelby has officially collected $6,261. We were the 29th team overall in fund-raising, 13th among family teams. This year, there were 93 walk teams that each raised $1,000 or more.

This is a wonderful effort. In years past, the Bay Area chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation has raised about $2 million annually with its local walks. The amount of positive research into the causes and cures of Type I diabetes this amount of money will fund is just amazing.

Each member of Team Shelby is part of the solution. We are once again humbled and thankful for your support. Join us in celebrating our success!

Here's the official list for teams over $5,000:
Dollars Raised --- Team Name
$95,108 --- USS-POSCO
$72,532 --- Pepsi
$51,500 --- Oakland Athletics
$50,000 --- Harman Management Corp.
$29,458 --- PeopleSoft
$21,780 --- Dylan's Superstars (Calamoneri)
$21,495 --- Connor's Crusade for a Cure (Young)
$17,242 --- Team Bobby (Stearns)
$11,096 --- Addi's Angels/Maile's Miracles (Aplanalp)
$10,740 --- Hannah's Hikers (Francis)
$10,528 --- Emily's Dream Team (Giambastini)
$10,341 --- Safeway
$10,105 --- Tessie's Team (Robinson)
$10,000 --- Lending-A-Hand Pacific Service CU
$9,818 --- Jordan's Team (Ehrlich)
$9,601 --- ADP ProBusiness
$9,458 --- Katie's Krew (Assael)
$9,337 --- Farmer's Insurance
$9,280 --- Miller/Telles Family Team
$9,015 --- Alex's Army (Riley)
$8,710 --- PMI Group, Inc.
$8,675 --- Target
$7,375 --- Alec's Advocates (Hillman)
$7,303 --- Katelyn's Krew (Hanna/Theobald)
$7,205 --- Jack & Jill (Contra Costa County Chapter)
$6,955 --- Cooper's Crew for a Cure
$6,914 --- Temple Isaiah
$6,813 --- Save Mart Supermarkets
$6,261 --- Team Shelby (Corey)
$6,170 --- Jordan's CREW (Cain)
$6,115 --- Aiden's Army (Hornett)
$5,500 --- Jacob's Crew (Castleberry)
$5,375 --- Castus Low Carb Superstores
$5,302 --- Aradigm Corporation
$5,211 --- Aisling's A-Team (Maher)
$5,068 --- Team Handy

Walks From Around America

2004-10-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

I've been seeing lots of accounts recently of families and children fighting diabetes one step at a time like we do here at Team Shelby. Part of the beauty of the Internet is having all of this at your fingertips, but it also brings home just how many people this disease impacts.

Here are capsules of what local newspapers around the country have been reporting:
****
Lowell, Mass., Sun:

Jonathan Lapa was 3 when he first got sick.

He was on vacation with his family in Disney World when he suddenly fell very ill.

At the doctor's office in Orlando, Fla., they were told he had a stomach bug, so the family cut short their trip and came back home to Dracut. But Jonathan wasn't getting any better.

They brought him to his primary-care physician. It was a good thing they did. The doctor said if they waited a couple more days, Jonathan would have ended up in a coma.

Jonathan, a sweet little boy with light brown hair and bright blue eyes, was diagnosed with Type I diabetes an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the cells that produce insulin.

Devastated by the news, the family began the long, heartbreaking journey down a road feared by all parents.

"My baby was very sick," said Jonathan's mother, Sheila Lapa, with tears streaming down her face. "And there wasn't anything I could do about it.

"I cried for a year," she said. "It's very, very hard it changes your whole life."
****
From the Marietta, Ohio, Times:

By Connie Cartmell

You don't have to be a mother to know the fear Jeanann Hartman felt eight years ago when her 6-year-old daughter, Nikki Neville, was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.
The news was overwhelming.

"When I first found out, I was very upset," Hartman, of Cutler, said. "I still worry, and I feel like I nag her a lot."

This mom worries that when her daughter is old enough to move away from home, that she won't take good care of herself and terrible complications will result.

In Type 1 diabetes, a person's pancreas produces little or no insulin, a hormone necessary to sustain life. Insulin must be taken, usually by daily injection, to maintain the proper glucose balance.

There are 17 million Americans with diabetes, 2 million diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. Of the total number of victims, there is one death every three minutes from diabetes. Juvenile, or Type 1 diabetes, often goes undiagnosed, while internal damage continues to ravage young victims. It is a growing health concern, receiving a lot of attention as more children are diagnosed at younger ages.

Several thousand Ohioans participated in a walk at Easton Mall in Columbus Sunday to support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A group from Marietta, including Neville, attended in support.

"The numbers of people there really impressed me," Tracey Huck, of Marietta, dean of students at Cutler and Bartlett elementary schools said. "There were a ring of 'walkers' all around the mall perimeter."
****
From the Munster, Ind., Times:

BY SUZANNA TUDOR

MERRILLVILLE -- More than 2,000 people took steps Sunday to help raise more than $325,000 for the Northwest Indiana Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Using names such as "Bobby's Buddies" and "Kady's Krusaders," friends and family members of youngsters stricken with the disease converged on Hidden Lake Park in Merrillville for the fifth annual Walk to Cure Diabetes.

The organization was founded in 1970 and sponsors more than 200 walks nationally. The local walk was started because of a mother's desire to help her daughter.

Kady Helmer, 14, of Western Springs, Ill., was diagnosed with Type I diabetes eight years ago.

"I felt there was a need for support from Northwest Indiana for juvenile diabetes research," said mother Kassy Helmer, 41.
****
From The Intelligencer of suburban Philadelphia, Pa.:

At 8 years old, Kelly Bandish just wants to fit in.

She was diagnosed with Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes over the summer. This school year is different from the last because Kelly now has to visit the school nurse several times a day to check her blood-sugar level.

"I'm afraid people will think I'm different than the other kids. I'm afraid that they'll think I'm not the same," said Kelly, a third-grader at Mill Creek Elementary School in Warrington.

She plays soccer, softball and the violin. She loves animals. When she grows up, she wants to be a veterinarian.

Looking at her, no one would know she has diabetes. The daily insulin injections that Kelly gives herself serve as a reminder.

In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, which is necessary for the body to be able to use sugar, according to the American Diabetes Association Web site.

Kelly is asking for support as she participates in the Walk to Cure Diabetes on Oct. 31 in Fort Washington. She is hoping to raise $5,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
****

They go on and on and on. Thousands of kids just like our Shelby all over the country just trying to live a normal life with a disease that forces them to think about what their body is doing 24/7.

Terrific Walk!

2004-10-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

Wow! What a wonderful Walk to Cure Diabetes 2004! The weather was absolutely perfect. The turnout was great. And we here at Team Shelby HQ were once again humbled and thankful for our fantastic team!

We had about 60 Team Shelby walkers turn out this morning to join thousands of others at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek. Only a small group was able to get there early enough for the official picture, but when the walk stepped off at 9 a.m. the Team's pale yellow shirts were clearly evident among all the other family and corporate teams.

As of the end of registration this morning, Team Shelby had raised almost $7,000 to help find a cure for diabetes. That's a phenomenal figure! With more pledges still coming in, that amount is likely to grow even bigger. (It's never to late to mail in your donation to the JDRF!) As amazing as the money is, it's even more important the new people who joined the team this year and the untold hundreds who learned something about diabetes from our ever-expanding Team membership.

Our team is truly inspirational. We've heard some of the stories:
** The penny and coin drive at Van Nuys Elementary School that raised more than $400. Some 22 teachers were involved this year and another segment of classes has yet to participate.
** The staff of the Solano County Public Defender's Office that opened their hearts to the Team again this year with an amazing outpouring of support.
** The members of the classic car club that my West County Times colleague Mary Reiley belongs to who spontaneously donated $10 each over a desert social.
** The dozens of family members who were moved enough by what their Team member relatives were doing that they joined the Team themselves by telling their friends and associates about Team Shelby and the JDRF.
** The student body of Napa Junction Elementary School, especially Kindergarten Room K, Ms. Salsman and Mrs. Hansen. Ms. Salsman, Alex and Shelby's teacher, helped her class make signs for Alex and Shelby to carry in the walk signed and decorated by all their classmates. Then hundreds of kids at the school signed a wall-sized banner that read "Go Team Shelby!" The signatures and pictures were tremendous! We used the banner in our team picture and put it up at the post-walk BBQ.

These are just a few of the hundreds of extraordinary personal efforts that make Team Shelby amazing!

We had more Team members than ever come to the post-walk barbecue at our house. More than 35 people came over to share together in the success of our group effort. People of diverse backgrounds and experiences all coming together in the shared support of Team Shelby over barbecued chicken, burgers, hot dogs and a little Sunday afternoon football. We were particularly blessed this year to have Liz's family from Lompoc and Scott's family from Southern California travel up for the weekend.

I could go on for hours. But we'd also like to hear from Team members! By clicking on the 'comment' note at the end of this posting, you can add your thoughts about this year's Walk to Cure Diabetes for everyone to enjoy.

We handed out almost a dozen individual cameras at the walk and BBQ this year for Team members to take pictures. We're going to have those developed and post them up on the site as soon as possible. We'll send out a note when the pictures are available.

The walk is over for this year, but the fight against diabetes continues. Please come back to the site regularly for news and research updates. You'll also soon hear about an opportunity to support one Team member on his quest to launch the Team Shelby Bike Team with a spring time Ride to Cure Diabetes.

There is no way to adequately say 'thank you' to each and every one of you for your contribution to Team Shelby. Through financial support, thoughtful gestures, telling a friend or colleague about diabetes, and/or prayers and well wishes, each of you buoyed Team Shelby more than you, or we, could ever really know.

The Final Push

2004-09-25T09:29:00.000-07:00

We are just days from the walk.

Here are details to remember:
1. Start rounding up last-minute donors so proceeds can be turned in Oct. 3. Convert any cash donations to checks payable to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. No cash can be accepted on walk day.

2. It's never too late to donate. Any gifts that come in after Oct. 3 can be sent directly to the JDRF San Francisco office.

3. Because we have an awesome team, we qualify for not only our own check-in table on walk day but an official team photo. Our photo time is 8 a.m. Get there bright and early so you don't miss the picture.

4. T-shirts are coming in this week. We'll distribute them as quickly as possible after we get them.

5. Have fun! The walk is a tremendous time of inspiration. It's amazing to see thousands of people coming together to support a cause so close to all of our hearts.

Thanks for all of your love and support. We couldn't do what we do everyday for Shelby and the JDRF could not work to find a cure without all of your support.

Keep coming back to our site. After the walk, we'll post a new round of great photos. You'll continue to get the latest news and information about the team and the fight against diabetes all year long.

Fund-raising tip: Leverage your donations

2004-09-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

Corporate matching grants is one of the best ways to maximize the donations you collect so Team Shelby can support the JDRF.

Many employers have programs that will partially match donations made by their employees to philanthropic causes. While many companies have such policies, employees often have to ask about them for the door to swing open. Use your fundraising letter to make your pitch. You also can note that the JDRF has been very well rated by the American Institute of Philanthropy for its responsible use of donations.

Some companies have cut back on their donations as the economy has hit some rough spots. But it never hurts to ask. Others budget the money the use it for other purposes at the end of the year when it goes unspent. Normally, the human resources department is the repository for this type of information.

The bottom line: You can't take advantage of planned/budgeted corporate giving unless you ask.

If anyone gets a corporate matching grant, please let us know. We will be more than happy to spread the good news about that responsive corporate citizen with our ever-growing online audience.

Good luck!

What your donations do

2004-09-04T09:17:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of what the JDRF does with the money Team Shelby raises. We are a vital part of a much larger global effort.

See more examples in the Research Corner.

August 23, 2004
BOSTON-The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Harvard Medical School today announced the opening of the JDRF Center for Immunological Tolerance in Type 1 Diabetes at Harvard Medical School, Generously Supported by Marshalls Ten Year Partnership with JDRF.

The Center was developed because advances in the immune tolerance area are critical for finding better treatments, and eventually a cure, for type 1 diabetes. The primary goals of the JDRF Center for Immunological Tolerance at Harvard Medical School are:

* understanding how immunological tolerance breaks down to provoke type 1 diabetes
* learning how to re-establish tolerance in order to prevent or cure type 1 diabetes, in particular via islet transplantation
* providing a framework for integrating basic research and clinical endeavors focused on islet transplantation
* serving as a magnet for research on immunological tolerance in type 1 diabetes at Harvard Medical School and its affiliated hospitals, and in the Boston area more generally
* becoming a reservoir for new technologies and resources to service the worldwide community of type 1 diabetes researchers.

The new Center will be supported by JDRF with a three-year grant of approximately $5 million.

"We are excited about tackling the critical and very complicated area of immune tolerance," says Raphael Dolin, M.D., Dean for Academic and Clinical Programs at Harvard Medical School. "The Center's scientists are dedicated to learning more about immune tolerance and are acutely aware of its potential impact on islet transplantation, which is a very promising strategy for treating and potentially curing diabetes. We are honored to be working with JDRF to help find a cure for type 1 diabetes."

Go Team Shelby!

2004-09-03T04:40:00.000-07:00

Team Shelby was mentioned somewhat prominently in the JDRF Bay Area weekly walk team captain update on Thursday.

Not only did they thank us for turning in a sample fundraising letter, we have the second highest advance walker registration so far with 29 walkers. Way to go!

In the past two years, all of you - Team Shelby - raised more than $10,000 to help the JDRF find a cure! Told you all those small checks and pennies add up! We have a fairly ambitious goal this year, but we can make it!

The East Bay walk is on Oct. 3, which is coming up fast. If you have registered yet, please follow the link at the left to do so. You can also sponsor a registered walker through the same link! Tip: Shelby is a registered walker.

If any team members need help remembering who supported their fundraising last year, drop us a line. We have that information and can get it out to you quickly

Liz is heading up the T-shirt orders. Write to us and we can get a shirt shipped out to you. We have a couple different styles. It's a great way to show year around support for the Team! Even if you can't make the walk!

The JDRF update also plugged our Web site! It's our first, official outside the team plug!

Just for some friendly competition: Sal Pal's, another East Bay family team, has 99 walkers already! They did really well last year, too. As the walk come closer there are usually some really tremendous sudden surges!

Keep up the good work. You are all amazing. We couldn't push forward without knowing the tremendous support network we have in all of you.

Off to School

2004-09-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

Frequent visitors probably have wondered, "What's going on with Shelby these days?" You've also probably wondered why things haven't been updated on the site lately.

Well, the answer to those questions are inter-related.....We've started kindergarten!

Shelby and her twin brother Alex have been in school now for almost three weeks. There's been tons of excitement and new experiences, friends, teachers and routines. They love kindergarten. For Shelby, she's finally in the place she's talked about for more than a year!

We really think they are in a good place to get the academic training they need.

However, entering the public school system, even a good district, for the first time presented more challenges than we expected. Frankly, the school was less prepared for Shelby and providing the type of care she needs than we thought they would be. There are lots of reasons great and small for this, which we'll get into at some point in the future. But Liz and I have spent a lot of time working with our principal, teacher and school nurse to work out a formal plan structuring Shelby's day at school. Let's just say it was terrific to go to back to school night this week and talk about academics rather than negotiating a medical regimen.

That's part of the reason for the lack of regular Web site updates lately, too. But the real problem is that putting this site together and thinking of new and useful stuff for it is a ton of fun. I could spend all day on this. The problem is I have the proverbial day job and I have to sleep at some point. I can really see how people get addicted to this stuff!

On TV

2004-09-02T05:21:00.000-07:00

For Team members in the Bay Area and environs, there will be a television segment on the JDRF walk this month.

The good folks at the JDRF Bay Area office wrote:

"Cal-Hi Sports will air a story on Swimmer/Golfer Andrea Sarti a type 1 diabetic from Carondelet High School on the show September 5 at 4:30 on KRON 4. The story will be replayed on September 6 at 7 p.m. on Fox Sports Net."

Sometimes seeing another person's story first-hand can be pretty inspiring, particularly when its a teen who is living a 'normal' life with diabetes. Important thign to remember: People with diabetes can do just about anything. They just need to plan ahead and really think about what those activities mean for their lives.

Iacocca's challenge

2004-08-18T06:10:00.000-07:00

The longer we're involved with the JDRF and the battle against diabetes, the more we learn about others who refused to sit by and wait for the government and partisan politics to solve this problem. Personally, I think that's one of the most outstanding features of this community: We can do this ourselves.

The JDRF is a conduit we support because it helps regular people join the fight. Former Chrystler chief and philanthropist Lee Iacocca announced his own separate initiative this week. It's a case study in what the determination of one well-known man can do. Here's the press release:

Lee Iacocca announced today the launch of “Join Lee Now,” a fundraising initiative to investigate a potential cure for type 1 diabetes. In the 1980s, Lee Iacocca spearheaded a $500 million campaign to reopen the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Now, 20 years later, he is going back to the American people to raise $11 million to fund a potential cure for type 1 diabetes. Mr. Iacocca will be announcing his new initiative, www.joinleenow.org, on Monday August 16th in New York City. The funds raised as part of this initiative will be separate from the giving the Iacocca Foundation currently contributes to diabetes research and will go directly to support the clinical trials investigating this potential cure at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

“Since the death of my wife in 1983 from the complications of diabetes, I have been driven to do everything I can to fund diabetes research. Last year, one of the researchers we have supported for over a decade cured type 1 diabetes in mice. I’m not going to wait for the government or the pharmaceutical industry to decide to get the human trials going. We need $11 million for these clinical trials now. I’ve given the first million and I’m asking the American people to get behind me and give the rest,” said Lee Iacocca, Chairman of the Iacocca Foundation.

Dr. David Nathan, one of this country’s trial experts, will direct the clinical trials at MGH. Dr Denise Faustman’s initial work, which cured type 1 diabetes in mice, was largely funded by donations from the Iacocca Foundation. MGH is working with the Food and Drug Administration to move this science into human clinical trials. Lee Iacocca and the Iacocca Foundation are working closely with MGH to ensure the $11 million goal is met for the next phase of this research.

“Lee Iacocca and his foundation have made this research possible, beginning at the earliest stages and through our recent breakthrough. The Massachusetts General Hospital and I are honored and excited that he has offered to make this tremendous contribution and commitment to our research,” said Dr. Denise Faustman, Director of the MGH Immunobiology Laboratory.

“In the 1980s, they said that ordinary Americans wouldn't send checks to refurbish Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. They were wrong. I received lots of checks, big and small, from people all over the world and we achieved our goal. We can do it again,” said Lee Iacocca, Chairman of the Iacocca Foundation.

Treatment blocks Type I diabetes in mice

2004-08-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

There's been some exciting news on the research front: a possible key to blocking Type I diabetes has been found.

Here's a quick take (click the link above for a fuller release and a link to the actual research report)

From the JDRF:

JDRF-funded researchers have identified a protein on immune T cells that triggers type 1 diabetes in mice when it interacts with another protein found in cells of the pancreas. The scientists report that blocking the interaction prevents the disease without compromising normal immune defenses or causing measurable side effects.

The finding points to a possible strategy for preventing type 1 diabetes in humans, since the mouse T cell protein has a counterpart in the human immune system.

When the scientists used antibodies to prevent the protein of interest from binding its receptor, the mice were completely protected from the disease. (The effect is like plugging a keyhole so that even the correct key won’t turn the ignition). “You don’t need a calculator to tell the treatment group from the placebo group. It’s 100 percent effective,” said Lewis Lanier, Ph.D., of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), in a press statement.

The researchers expect that a “humanized” antibody, working in a similar manner, could provide an effective type 1 diabetes treatment in people. The finding is important, because unlike other treatments reported in mice, this therapy was effective even when given relatively late in disease progression.

Amazing response!

2004-08-13T05:46:00.000-07:00

Since we put up this little 'blog' site, we've had more than 200 visitors!

We here at the Team Shelby HQ are counting that as a HUGE success!

We put this up and weren't sure what any of you would think, or if anyone would actually come to the site more than once or get anything out of it. We're so glad it has hit a chord with so many of you.

That is sure to only spread in the coming weeks and months. Please bookmark us, if you haven't already, and come back often. If you run a site of your own, link to us. Let us know so we can check out your site and add a link ourselves.

We're not a big, fancy Web presence, nor are we a big, fancy organization. We're just doing what we believe is right to be the best parents we can be.

Anyone who wants to be included on the Team Shelby e-mail list, write us at teamshelby@yahoo.com

Shelby & Bill Robinson

2004-08-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

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!

Donate online

2004-08-11T06:24:00.000-07:00

The real webmasters over at the JDRF have made this REALLY easy.

Here's our 'how to":

Go to JDRF.org walk page. You can also get there through the main page and click on the walking shoe link at the right labeled "Walk to Cure Diabetes"

Under the "support a walker" feature you can type in the name and find that person.

When the name comes up, click on it and a page will come up that says "Alex Corey is walking with Team Shelby (Corey) on October 22, 2005 in Napa Valley, CA."

Liz, Scott, Alex and Shelby are all registered.

There are buttons to "Support this walker" to donate online or "join the team" to register for the walk yourself.

It's VERY easy.

If something goes wrong, write Team Shelby Fundraising guru Liz.

Welcome!

2004-08-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for visiting our brand new Team Shelby web site!

This is the first of what we hope is a series of exciting additions to the Team Shelby experience for 2004.

This is truly a labor of love intended to make it easier for you -- the members of Team Shelby -- to get information about diabetes, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and what we're up to here at Team Shelby.

Today is the kickoff of 2004 fund-raising for Team Shelby and the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes being held in Walnut Creek, Calif., on Oct. 3. Team representatives gathered today at the Marriott hotel in San Ramon, Calif., along with hundreds of people from the walk's corporate sponsors to launch the 2004 campaign. We'll post more information about the kickoff after Liz returns.

The Team Shelby webmaster (Scott) will update this site regularly from Team Shelby HQ (our laundry room/office) with fund-raising tips, news about the latest in diabetes research, and other information to keep everyone plugged in. We hope this site will be both fun and informative. It may even give you cause to pause and reflect from time to time on the inherent challenges in fighting diabetes.

We've created this as a 'blog' so anyone can comment on any of the 'posts' listed here. We hope you all will feel free to participate in this site and send us your thoughts and questions. From time to time, we'll post answers to common questions and links to resources to help you both feel comfortable as a team member and arm you with the accurate information you need to share with your family, friends and co-workers.

This is going to be an amazing year for Team Shelby. We're all very excited about the Olympic theme of this year's campaign.

Thanks again for visiting our site. Come back often and refer the URL to anyone you feel may be interested in Team Shelby.

We're pumping!

2004-08-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

The biggest advance in Shelby's Diabetes treatment has been the transition from shots to an insulin pump. It's a little like going from a bicycle to a motorcycle.

Since she was diagnosed almost three years ago, we've been giving Shelby insulin through shots. A while back we went from the trusty old syringe to an insulin pen, which doesn't require that we draw insulin from a vial. But Shelby still was getting up to 10 injections a day in the top of her hip, the back of her arms or the fronts of her legs. You also can give injections in the fat layer in the abdomen, but a 45-pound 5 year old doesn't have much of a fat layer there.

Though she is a trooper, getting 10 shots a day is a major pain and a major inconvenience. Imagine having to remember to carry all the stuff with you then find inconspicuous ways to give your child an injection at the mall. It also produced problems at school where not only are we dealing with staff that isn't trained on giving shots but other kids for whom syringes and needles pose a safety issue.

The state-of-the-art solution to the problem is an insulin pump. (We have some details about it in the Diabetes FAQs.) The idea of the pump is to eliminate the injections by placing a catheter under the skin and constantly deliver required insulin through a small, pager-sized computer and insulin reservoir she wears all the time.

Not only is the pump more precise, it also remembers when to give her insulin, so her baseline blood glucose levels are more even. It also has a really cool feature that helps us calculate how much to give her. All we have to put in is how many carbohyrdates she eats and her blood glucose level. The pump calculates how much she needs, even taking into account how much insulin is still active in her body. It is totally cool!

The pump also will be much easier to manage when she starts kindergarten later this month. There won't be any of those pesky needles schools don't allow on campus or the risk that some kid will decide he or she wants to shoot up WAY too much insulin to see what it feels like. The pump also has safety features to protect Shelby from mischievous fingers or accidentally giving herself too much medicine.

We've been at this now for almost a month. We are all getting very comfortable with it and her blood glucose readings are beginning to show the signs of a successful transition.

Diabetes FAQs

2004-08-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

There is so much to know about diabetes. We've been at this know for nearly three years and still feel like we've only just scratched the surface of what there is to know. Nearly everyday, we get word of a new line of research or a new discovery that is made to better understand even the most basic elements of cause and progression for this disease.

Our goal here is to answer some of the initial questions many people ask. For those on Team Shelby who are soliciting new supporters, this can offer some good information to share with people who have wildly wrong or outdated conceptions of diabetes. For others, it's a good place to check back on every so often to be reminded of those things you already know but might have just forgotten.

Most of all, this is not meant to be medical advice. This is just what we've learned and how we understand this disease that our daughter lives with every day. If you or someone you know has diabetes or is showing any symptoms, seek medical advice immediately about your specific condition.

1. What is diabetes

2. Why the two types of diabetes?

3. Can you outgrow juvenile diabetes?

4. Can Shelby eat sweets?

5. Insulin is cure for Type I diabetes, right?

6. Why does Shelby prick her finger?

7. What are hypo- and hyperglycemia?

8. What does an insulin pump do?

9. An insulin pump is basically an artificial
pancreas, then?

10. What's the cure?

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a malfunction of the body's insulin response system. The pancreas creates a hormone called insulin to assist the cells of the body to take in glucose, or simple sugar contained in everything we eat. Glucose is used to fuel the cells and allow them to carry out their work, from fighting disease to regular growth and development to supporting normal brain function. But cells can't take up the glucose they need without insulin, which acts as a gatekeeper allowing the glucose to enter the cells. For a variety of reasons, some people don't produce enough insulin or require more than their pancreas can produce. When there is a shortage of insulin, the glucose builds up in the bloodstream, creating a condition we often call high blood sugar. The short-circuiting of the insulin response is called diabetes.
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Why the two types of diabetes?

We hear a lot today about the exponential growth of diabetes cases in America. It's linked to soft drinks at school, people whom never exercise and those who just plain eat too much. Experts are regularly on the news talking about how America's obesity epidemic is causing the rising in diabetes cases. What they are talking about is known as Type II diabetes. It is the form of diabetes that the American Diabetes Association focuses on. It is usually found in older people, those who have unhealthy lifestyles or those whose pancreas is still making insulin but it's just not enough.

Type I diabetes, also called juvenile diabetes, is much different. While the symptoms and many of the treatments are similar to those for Type II, someone with Type I diabetes has a pancreas that produces no insulin. For reasons that are still the subject of robust research, the white blood cells attack and kill the islets in the pancreas that make insulin. We posted a research development on that in July.

The differentiation is necessary because the treatments used for each kind is much different. In those with Type II diabetes, lifestyle changes are often the first line of treatment. If doctors can get that person's lifestyle to match his or her body, with some minor medical interventions, the symptoms often subside or disappear. However, those with Type I diabetes need an exterior source of insulin to maintain proper bodily functions. That difference provides a host of lifelong challenges for the person with Type I.
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Can you outgrow juvenile diabetes?

The name seems to suggest that this is a temporary or childhood condition that will go away as the body matures. But that is not the case. The term "juvenile" in this case refers to when the disease is most often first discovered. The vast majority of those with Type I develop it before they are teens. Shelby was diagnosed just before her third birthday. We've heard of some case where infants as young as 6 months have been diagnosed.

Type I diabetes is a lifelong condition.
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Can Shelby eat sweets?

Absolutely! In fact, she loves ice cream, cake and just about every type of chocolate.

The key is keeping track of how much she eats and giving enough insulin to allow her body to absorb it without triggering high blood sugar. We do some things that are easy and just make sense to us. For example, she drinks diet soda instead of the sugary kind to save having to deal with the 41 grams of carbohydrate in one can of regular soda. Heck, that's equal to almost 3 cups of fresh watermelon, which is a whole lot of watermelon.

Before there were advanced types of injectable insulin that reacted quickly and blood glucose monitoring was streamlined, adjusting insulin levels to match the high carbohydrate content of most sweets was very hard. Sugar-free everything was the order of the day. For some with Type II diabetes that's still the case, mostly because they are trying to control their disease with diet. For a child with Type I diabetes, our treatment team advocates counting the carbohydrates in what Shelby eats, then compensating with the appropriate amount of insulin.

Shelby absolutely eats everything any other child does.
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Insulin is cure for Type I diabetes, right?

In a word, no. Insulin is a natural hormone everyone needs to metabolize nutrients properly. Insulin shots are a crude substitute for what the body usually does on an on-going basis.

Why does Shelby prick her finger?

At least 8 times a day, Shelby pricks her finger to get a small amount of blood that is used in her glucose monitor to measure her blood sugar, or blood glucose, levels. The monitor we use requires only a small drop of blood and takes 5 seconds to give a reading.

We use that reading to calculate how much she may need to eat or drink and how much insulin to give her to keep her readings in the normal range, between 70 and 120.

While the prick is not a walk in the park, it isn't incredibly painful. Shelby usually sleeps through the tests we have to do at 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.
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What are hypo- and hyperglycemia?

Those are the fancy medical terms for what we call "low" and "high" blood sugar.

The normal blood glucose reading is between 70 and 120. Any number below 70 is called hypoglycemia or low blood sugar. When this happens, Shelby's skin tends to get clammy and pale, her speech becomes slurred and unfocused, her hands might start shaking, or she may become irrationally emotional. Have you ever been in the middle of a major project and worked through lunch? Pretty soon you feel kind of rundown, confused and perhaps nauseous? That's hypoglycemia. If left untreated, someone with diabetes can go unconscious.

On the other end of the range is hyperglycemia or high blood sugar. Readings over 120 indicate that the body isn't absorbing nutrients properly. The immediate indicators of this condition are sometimes hyperactivity, uncontrollable thirst and urination, and nausea. While someone with diabetes rarely blacks out from hyperglycemia, if this condition is not controlled it can produce irreversible, long-term complications, such as kidney failure, blindness and circulatory problems.
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What does an insulin pump do?

An insulin pump in a device about the size of a pager that is worn under clothes that houses a supply of fast-acting insulin. A small catheter connects the computerized device to the patient. The pump can be programmed to deliver a steady flow of insulin constantly and enables a quick and painless way to deliver an additional dose, called a bolus, after meals or when the blood sugar is running high.

Using a pump eliminates the need to give numerous shots to deliver required insulin. The location where the catheter is inserted is changed once every three days, far better than having to take up to 10 shots a day. The pump also reduces the amount of gear someone with Type I diabetes has to carry around and eliminates the safety problems loose syringes can cause on school campuses.
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An insulin pump is basically an artificial pancreas, then?

The pump we recently got for Shelby is state of the art. It can be programmed in dozens of ways. But we still have to tell it what her blood sugar readings are and we still have to input how many carbohydrates she has eaten. While it's an major advance, it is not an independent artificial pancreas.

We've definitely come to respect the work the pancreas does. This one little organ, in conjunction with others inside all of us, measures how much carbohydrate we've eaten, how much activity we're engaged in and sends out the right amount of insulin to keep everything running smoothly. It is so efficient the most of us play sports, work in the yard, stroll to the store, gobble up pizza, slurp Starbuck's drinks and grab a quick bowl of ice cream as a treat without giving it a second thought. While someone with diabetes can do all those things, he or she has to think about each and every step of it and prepare accordingly.
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What's the cure?

There isn't one, yet.

Isn't that frustrating? You are faced with watching your 3-year-old having to deal with this disease, which could end her life prematurely or change her lifestyle in a million unimaginable ways, and there is no way to fix it.

That's what we wanted to do – just fix it. Give the magic pill. Make it go away. But we couldn't. The awful truth is there is no cure for Type I diabetes. In 1970, parents of children with juvenile diabetes felt just as frustrated and couldn't sit still and do nothing. So they formed the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation on the basic idea that Type I diabetes was a solvable puzzle if modern medical researchers had the tools and time to find that solution.

Since its inception, the JDRF has become the largest non-governmental funder of research into the causes and cures of Type I diabetes. The foundation has awarded more than $800 million to diabetes research, including more than $80 million in fiscal year 2003. That year alone, the foundation funded 500 research centers, grants and fellowships in 19 countries, according to its Web site. Results are coming in everyday from faster acting types of insulin to advanced insulin pumps to research into insulin islet transplants to isolating the genes that cause all of this in the first place.

We believe there will be a cure in Shelby's lifetime. We are determined to do everything we can to help. That's why we support the JDRF and ask our friends and family members to do the same. Finding a cure is the sole reason there is a Team Shelby.
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JDRF day at SBC Park

2004-07-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was a special day for Team Shelby and our family. It was Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation day at SBC Park. The Giants lost to the San Diego Padres that day. But Liz and the kids had great seats 27 rows up from first base thanks to our good friend Leslie and her family. Mark and I sat up in the upper deck in seats he’d purchased earlier in the year; we like to go to at least one game a year together, just the guys, and this one turned out to be on JDRF day. The seats we had were the same ones our family sat in for our first family game at the Giants in 2003.

JDRF day with the Giants is really just an awareness-raising event. There is a booth down on the community row next to the KNBR radio booth. There was a pre-game ceremony out at home plate where some kids with diabetes thanked the Giants and pitcher Brett Tomko for their efforts in raising awareness of the disease. It also was a chance for us to wear our Team Shelby shirts and answer people’s questions about what Team Shelby is, spreading the word one person at a time.

It was a great day all around, except for the final score. But like a long baseball season where your team is kinda in the playoff hunt and kinda not, the work of educating people about diabetes, what it means and what we can do to fight it is a day-by-day process.

Each person we tell about Team Shelby is one more person who didn’t know before. Each person we hand a JDRF pamphlet to is one more person who may just take a minute to read it and learn something really important.

There are JDRF chapters and events all over the country. If there’s one near you, stop by and let the folks there know you support the work they are doing for a little girl you know in Northern California.

Discovery: Gene mutation link to Type I Diabetes

2004-07-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Medical College of Georgia researchers have discovered a gene mutation that controls a major immune system response that leads to autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes. This research was funded in part by the JDRF.

Here's a short piece of the article. Click the link above for the full article from the college's Web site.

A natural mutation of a gene that helps regulate the reactivity of the immune system is a major contributor to type 1diabetes, Medical College of Georgia researchers have found.

The newly discovered gene, SUMO-4, controls the activity of NFkB, a molecule that in turn controls the activity of cytokines, proteins that regulate the intensity and duration of the immune response, according to research that will be published in the August print issue of Nature Genetics and online July 11.

By examining the transmission of genes from parents to children in nearly 1,000 diabetic families from around the world, the researchers found that a certain natural mutation of that SUMO-4 gene increases the risk of type 1 diabetes.

"This helps us understand how type 1 diabetes works, and we can use this improved understanding to better predict who will get the disease and design new intervention strategies for those who do," said Dr. Jin-Xiong She, director of the MCG Center for Biotechnology and Genomic Medicine and a co-senior author on the study.

"The mutation we have found is going to increase the responsive capacity of the immune system to environmental triggers or stimulators; it makes it more reactive," said Dr. Cong-Yi Wang, molecular geneticist and co-senior author.

Dr. Wang and his research team found that when that mutation encounters an environmental trigger, such as a bacterial or viral infection, it throws off the usual well-balanced activity of the immune system, initiating an autoimmune response that eventually attacks the patient’s own tissue.

They already are exploring the gene’s potential role in other autoimmune diseases as well such as lupus, thyroid disease, arthritis and multiple sclerosis.

A tribute to our walk team

2004-07-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

We are more thankful than we can ever say to everyone on Team Shelby. Anyone who has given a dime, turned out for a walk or gathered donations from 10,000 people are all members of the team. We couldn't do what we do without all of you.

We do have a particular fondness for those who turn out in the early morning hours at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek for the 5k-walk that culminates the annual Team Shelby/Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation fundraising effort. In 2003, we had a great group, all decked out in royal blue team shirts and, for the first time, caps.

We look forward to another great trip around the park on Oct. 3, 2004. Any team members who can make it are more than welcome. After the walk we invite any and all who care to join us over to our house for a post-walk barbecue, which is lots of fun. It's great to see people from various aspects of our lives share in a meal and get to know each other when other their only common bond is Shelby and a genuine concern for her well-being and health.

We thank everyone who has ever walked with our team and those too distant to make who said a special prayer for us on that day.

The Team 2003
Originally uploaded by teamshelby.

Who we are and why we care

2004-07-12T18:08:00.000-07:00

Team Shelby was born in 2002 shortly after our 2-year-old daughter Shelby was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes. We had survived our 'diabetes boot camp' at the hospital and were determined to find some way to not just live with the disease but fight back.

We've teamed up with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an international nonprofit organization which is the largest non-governmental supporter of cutting-edge research to cure this chronic disease. The JDRF was founded by parents of children with diabetes who refused to wait for capricious government funding of the needed advancements toward solving the riddle of diabetes. The JDRF is a true leader in this field of research with partnerships with the top universities and research centers in the world pursuing answers to both the causes and cures of diabetes.

We believe that finding a cure for our daughter is worth our time and effort. We were given this challenge as a family and we fight it as a family. It has been a tremendous blessing to discover that so many of our family and friends agreed with us. The JDRF holds annual Walk to Cure Diabetes events in cities across the nation. The number of people who have donated money to Team Shelby (our walk team that donates 100% of the proceeds tothe JDRF) has been tremendous. That's a main reason we have this website -- to keep in touch with our team and share the latest about our journey toward a cure.

We are gearing up new fund-raising approaches, including our first-ever corporate sponsorship opportunities, as we plan for the October Walk to Cure Diabetes. Please explore our site: We pack it full of both inspirational stories and the latest in the research battle against Type I Diabetes. The money is working. Scientists are discovering, a piece at a time, what exactly causes this disease and how to best treat and, perhaps one day, prevent and cure it.