Round and round they walked and ran, the very picture of energetic kids. Among them, as bouncy as the rest, were a few for whom the three-day event could change their lives.
It was Conway Elementary School's first Walk to Cure Juvenile Diabetes, technically known as Type 1. The walk was organized by Susan Sprow, whose second-grade daughter, Jennifer, has Type 1 diabetes.
The walk is a national event sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Its Virginia headquarters is in Richmond.
Over three days last week at Conway Elementary in Falmouth, some 650 second- through fifth-graders each walked about a mile and a half. For two days, groups of 50 circled the 170-foot perimeter of the Activities Room for 45 minutes or, on the one day it didn't rain, they ran around the outside of the school.
The object was to raise money for the research foundation. This year's inaugural event at Conway raised $391. The walkers found sponsors and filled envelopes with the proceeds, which will be sent to Richmond. One wall in a corridor is covered with paper silhouettes of sneakers, each one with a student's name representing $1 raised.
Jennifer and her good friend Emily Clark, a matching cherub-faced second-grader who also has Type 1, are in the same class.
"It's wonderful they are together," said Emily's mother, Renee Clark. "They don't feel as different from the rest, not as isolated."
That is true for another reason, too. Their teacher, Jane Kolakowski, has Type 2 diabetes. She radiates good health.
"I help take care of them," she said. "When their blood sugar gets too low, I give them something helpful to drink and send them off to the school nurse."
And that, says the nurse, Beth Froehlich, "is an ideal arrangement."
Jennifer and Emily also can take care of themselves. Each wears an insulin pump in a small pouch on her waistband. If they feel a sugar imbalance in their system, they press a little button that adds insulin to their bloodstream.
They can also check themselves for low sugar levels by making a tiny needle-prick at the end of a finger (or toe) and testing the blood droplet with a meter they have in their pouch.
Jennifer was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes two years ago. Her mother, a pharmacist, knows what that means. It also inspired her to organize the school's "walk for the cure." And she has put up large bulletin boards in the school hallways, explaining the disease and its treatment.
"Type 1 usually affects children," she said. "Your pancreas stops producing insulin. Insulin is necessary to keep open the pathways to cells in the body, which need sugar for energy." When cells can't take in the sugar, the sugar builds up in the blood, and the cells don't function properly.
Hence, the insulin pump and the need to be able to test the blood's sugar level. "Sometimes I don't like doing it," Jennifer said. Only sometimes. She knows how important it is.
Back in the Activities Hall the kids bounced along to the beat of, mostly, classic rock: AC/DC, Dave Matthews, Bob Seger. The activity took the place of P.E. for those three days. By the end of the week, adding up everybody's distances, they had covered some 900 miles.
"It's more activity than they usually get in phys ed," said instructor Martha Clark. "It's a time to socialize."
The kids also know they are there because of Jennifer and Emily.
"We're worried," said one second-grader, "about them not finding a cure." To see more of The Free Lance-Star or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://fredericksburg.com/flshome. Copyright (c) 2008, The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008 The Free Lance-Star, Fredericksburg, Va.