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April 2, 1999 Dear Moms, Dads, Grandparents, Guardians, and Children: Thanks to all of you who have responded to apply to be delegates to our first Children’s Congress and to the thousands of you who have written such wonderful letters. Your stories have touched our hearts, as I know they will the hearts of our lawmakers in Washington. One of the reasons the JDF Children’s Congress was begun was to find the wonderful families and powerful voices within JDF and across the United States that can help us achieve our goal of a cure for diabetes. The letter-writing campaign we started shows we are just at the beginning of a powerful process. The process of choosing our delegates was extremely difficult. Please know that all the volunteers who served on the selection committee—and everyone at JDF—were highly appreciative of the dedication to finding a cure for diabetes and its complications shown by all who wrote. Every letter and story becomes an important part of the fabric of our Children’s Congress as Senators, Representatives, and Administration officials are made aware of just how serious diabetes is and how important it is that we fund research to find a cure. The delegates who will attend the JDF Children’s Congress are now representative of the much larger population of children with diabetes. They will be taking with them as many letters as are received. We hope there will be letters from children with diabetes, from members of their families, from their friends, their teachers—all who understand the deadly seriousness of the disease and the need to move research down the path to a cure as quickly as possible. The more individual letters we have, the greater the chance our voices will be heard. All letters should be sent to
Thanks to all for your passion and commitment to JDF and to its first Children’s Congress. I continue in my strong belief that there is a cure and that together we will find it. The power of this statement has never been better expressed than through the letters you’ve sent. We look forward to receiving hundreds and hundreds more and to forwarding them on to our Representatives and Senators. Sincerely, Sandra D. Silvestri |
