Kindness for Kicks

I was ten when my life changed forever. I don’t remember much of the day itself, but the stark lights of the hospital stand out as well as the faint memory of my older brother who never had a kind word to say, reaching out to give me a hug. Fifteen years later and I’m still working through life with type one diabetes every day. The disease has never been easy to deal with, never been easy to come to terms with, especially the lifelong part.

I, however, have been so incredibly blessed by this disease as well.

After diagnosis, my doctor told my parents to send me to summer camp specifically tailored for children with type one diabetes. There I met the most wonderful group of people who have ever existed. I would attend the camp every summer until I was 17 and then would come back as an 18-year-old counselor. At the end of the “diabetes week” every summer I would cry my biggest cry of the year. Camp is such a breath of fresh air for all who attend. It is so difficult to live in a world where the autoimmune disease you carry with you invisibly is so incredibly misunderstood, misconstrued in the media, and very rare. Camp is a safe haven, a place where you are normal despite the tubing coming out of your side, where no one has to ask you what you need when you say your blood sugar is low. It is the best place in the world.

The camp I attended has gone through many changes throughout my life, but the one thing that has remained constant is the wonderful group of people who surround me.

The camp is now run by a small nonprofit organization called the Diabetes Family Connection. It is a unique organization, even in the diabetes world, because instead of focussing on research or finding a cure, it focuses on the here and now, the support of the families affected by this life changing disease.

When covid hit, it was a real blow to the nonprofit. All of DFC’s fundraising events were put on hold, all the meet up’s with families, staff retreats, and almost all outreach events came grinding to a halt. Patrick Mertes, the executive director and founder of the DFC did an incredible job making decisions about how to proceed through this pandemic. Diabetes is an incredibly isolating disease already and became even more so during the pandemic.

Patrick, the most active diabetic I know, (seriously he’s climbed all 50 of the highest peaks in the US in just 50 days) decided to reach out his hand and pull the community together with a simple act of kindness that ended up reaching so many people.

Patrick decided the DFC should do a movement challenge. Not an exercise challenge necessarily, but just a challenge to get up off the couch, a challenge to let corona rob us of everything. We couldn’t meet in person so the challenge took place on Instagram, and never have I ever seen a group of people come together more quickly. Not only did most of the counselors from camp participate in the challenge, but campers too, and people from outside the organization who had never even attended a DFC function before.

It may not seem like a stereotypical “act of kindness”, but Patrick’s refusal to let corona stop the Diabetes Family Connection from existing is one of the biggest acts of kindness many families living with T1D have ever experienced. Not only did we all get to participate in the movement activity, but since then there have been virtual bonfires and hangouts, focusing on Positive Mental Attitude, a Camp Morris staple. These small pockets of community, the kind of community focus on lifting people to their feet, is the biggest act of kindness I’ve experienced throughout 2020 and I am so grateful that I get to continue to be a part of such a wonderful community that cares so much about the health and wellbeing of not only the people directly involved in their organization but anyone affected by type one diabetes.