Join Jack's Pack

Calling all friends and family to rally around Jack and be a part of the cure! See Jack’s video and website at www.jacks-pack.com! Dear friends and family, After blowing out the candles on his birthday cake, Jack announced, “I made the same wish I made last year. I wished that I no longer had diabetes. I wished that I were normal.” Imagine our heartbreak. Our six-year-old son hadn’t wished for a dog, a new bicycle or a trip to Disneyland, as most of his peers might have. He had wished for a cure for the disease that grips him daily. It is painful to hear your little one wish he were “normal.” It is devastating to hear your pediatrician deliver a diabetes diagnosis. It is excruciating to move forward after such a life-altering event, having to become a medical expert overnight and having to learn to how to keep your child alive by testing his blood and injecting him with insulin several times a day. And, it is agonizing to live in fear of complications that could claim your child’s life in a heartbeat. Jack was diagnosed with type 1 (juvenile) diabetes on October 8, 2007. Diabetes turned our lives upside down. Now, we aim to turn diabetes upside down. This year, just as we did in 2008, we will participate in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes. Our Walk team, Jack’s Pack, is back! The Walk will take place on Saturday, October 31, 2009 at Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Arizona. We support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), because it is the #1 nonprofit organization funding diabetes research worldwide and its sole purpose is to find a cure for diabetes and its complications. We will continue to work for JDRF until a cure is found. Won’t you please support Jack and JDRF, too? There are several ways you can help: • Join Jack’s Pack. Collect pledges and walk with us. We would be honored to have you on our team. Besides, the Walk is fun! Register to walk with us at www.walk.jdrf.org (Team Name: Jack’s Pack; State: Arizona), or for more information, visit www.jacks-pack.com. • Make an online, tax-deductible donation. Go to www.walk.jdrf.org (Team Name: Jack’s Pack; State: Arizona) or visit www.jacks-pack.com for detailed instructions. • Send us a tax-deductible contribution made payable to JDRF. We will deliver all donations to JDRF. Send contributions to Gregg Bonn, Premier Southwest Insurance Group, 14500 N. Northsight Blvd., Ste. 101, Scottsdale, AZ 85260. • Ask your employer’s HR department whether your company matches charitable donations. If so, feel free to send us the paperwork. We’d be happy to fill out the forms for you. • Become a corporate sponsor of Jack’s Pack. In return, you will receive special recognition for your business. Visit www.jacks-pack.com and click on the “become a sponsor” tab. Or, email us or call Gregg at (480) 315-9051 for more information. • Contact others in your circle of friends and family to walk and donate as well. Feel free to forward this email or write your own. Heidi would be happy to help you write your own letter, too. We realize that budgets are extremely tight this year. Donations are down everywhere. We fear that JDRF researchers may lose the momentum toward the cure that has been gained over the past several years. Thus, we ask you to donate according to your means. Donate a little. Donate a lot. Just please donate and be as generous as possible. We also know that you may have other causes and organizations that you support. Please know that your endorsement of JDRF in honor of Jack means the world to us. We deeply appreciate your assistance. Every walker and every dollar brings us closer to a cure. Thank you for your support. Don’t forget to view Jack’s video and website at www.jacks-pack.com. With gratitude and hope, Heidi Rheingold-Bonn and Gregg Bonn