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Student leading diabetes effort

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 15, 2009

KEYSTONE - Before taking his message to Washington, Jacob Rivers brought it to school.

The 11-year-old and fellow fifth-graders at Hammond Elementary have been educating their classmates about diabetes and raising money for research. They sold paper sneakers for donations that hung in classrooms and lined up sponsors for a one-hour walk around the school track this morning.

Students are trying to raise $1,500 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

"It feels kind of good knowing that people who don't have (diabetes) and don't really understand it would want to raise money for it," said Jacob, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 4.

He hopes to reach a larger audience in June, when he travels to Washington, D.C., as part of the diabetes foundation's children's congress, which started in 1999.

One hundred and fifty kids were chosen to take part out of the more than 1,500 from across the country. Jacob joins six others from Florida, from elementary through high school.

Participants will meet with members of Congress and attend a Senate hearing to talk about their experiences with diabetes and lobby for more research funding. The foundation covers costs for the students and chaperones.

Jacob had to fill out an application and write a letter to Congressman Gus Bilirakis to qualify.

"I said how hard it is to live with diabetes and how important it is for Congress to keep raising money for it and how hard it is to play sports with it," Jacob said.

An avid athlete, Jacob plays baseball with Keystone Little League and also enjoys football, basketball and golf. He has worn an insulin pump since kindergarten and must check his blood sugar daily. It doesn't interfere with his activities, said mother Dori Rivers, but he has to be careful.

Jacob said he can tell when something is wrong because he gets thirsty and his head hurts. He might have trouble focusing on the game or have to sit down and eat or drink something.

Since his diagnosis, Jacob and his family have become involved in the Tampa Bay chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. His father, Tim, serves on the board and is the incoming president. Dori is on the communications committee. Both plan to accompany Jacob to Washington.

"Neither one of us wanted to miss it," Dori Rivers said.

Today's walk at Hammond Elementary ties in nicely with the work of the diabetes foundation, which asks delegates to the Children's Congress to raise awareness in their communities. It also helps further a goal of the two-year-old school, where students want to make service projects a tradition.

Rivers had hoped the school could raise $1,000 and was pleased to see students meet that goal before the walk began.

"The kids have been great," she said.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (813) 865-1503.

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