In October 2011, my oldest daughter Hannah was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (T1D). If you’re not familiar with T1D, it is a chronic autoimmune disease that affects the pancreas. People with T1D produce little or no insulin, a hormone essential for breaking down carbohydrates to feed the body, so they have to monitor their blood sugar levels throughout the day and take insulin, either via injections or pump, to keep their blood glucose levels in a healthy range. Prior to the discovery of insulin in 1921, T1D was a death sentence. Today, thanks to advancements in medical research and technology, people with T1D can live long and healthy lives, but they have to work hard, day and night, to stay healthy.
In December 2015, a few weeks before the holidays, I woke up in the middle of the night to test my daughter’s blood sugar. I had a hard time pricking her finger to draw a drop of blood, and when I looked closely, I noticed why: all of her fingertips are scarred from the thousands of times she’s pricked them to test (over 12,000 times by my conservative calculation). I went back to bed and decided then and there that I needed to do something this year — do more — to help find a cure for this disease, which unfortunately is affecting a rapidly growing number of children and adults around the world.
So, I came up with a big audacious idea: assemble a team of riders from a select group of logistics companies to join me for a 102.7-mile bike ride in Death Valley, California to benefit JDRF, the leading non-profit organization focused on T1D research. What started out as an idea became a reality thanks to the generous support of our founding sponsors, and along with donations from family and friends, we have collectively raised over $150,000 for JDRF since 2016!
We’re back at it again in 2019! Our team will ride in various locations this year — Sonoma, California; Saratoga Springs, New York; and Death Valley, California — and we’re raising the bar on our fundraising goal to $75K!
If you’re a friend or colleague of any of our riders, or if you have a direct or indirect connection to Type 1 Diabetes and would like to support our cause, you can donate directly to a rider via the links in the sidebar. Your tax-deductible donation will help us reach (and hopefully surpass) our goal and would be greatly appreciated.
If you’d like to sponsor our team or ride with us, please contact me for more information.
Thank you,
Adrian Gonzalez
President of Adelante SCM, Founder & Host of Talking Logistics
“There is no distance that I won’t go for a cure for Type 1 Diabetes”
JDRF Ride: Turning Type 1 into Type None
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