Photo courtesy of the JDRF.
John Henry Kirkpatrick represented Alabama at the JDRF Children’s Congress in Washington, D.C. this summer.
John Henry Kirkpatrick was one of two Alabama youths, selected from a pool of nearly 1,000 children ages 4 to 17, to represent the state at the JDRF 2019 Children’s Congress in Washington, D.C. Kirkpatrick, now 11, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 8 and has been involved in a number of JDRF fundraisers.
JDRF 2019 Children’s Congress took place July 8-10. Held biannually, the event is the largest media and grassroots event supporting Type 1 diabetes (T1D) research. The goal of the event was to raise awareness about T1D and to let Congressional leaders know how essential they are in advancing research and helping JDRF achieve its vision of a world without T1D. Celebrity T1D role models attended the entire event, sharing powerful experiences of living with T1D with both delegates and Congressional representatives.
The Children’s Congress ended with a critical and emotion-filled Senate hearing on Capitol Hill for the Special Diabetes Program (SDP), which has provided $150 million annually toward T1D research and is essential to JDRF’s mission to create a world without T1D. The program began in 1997 and has contributed nearly $2.8 billion toward T1Dresearch.
Submitted by the JDRF.
