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Contributing Meaningfully

Lower School students lead walk to help find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.

Contributing meaningfully is 1 of 3 major commitments defined in our new mission statement. Learn more about Ranney's newly ratified Strategic Vision.
On Sunday, October 11, a team of more than 60 walkers, comprised of Ranney School families, teachers, nurses and friends, hit the Avon-by-the-Sea boardwalk to support fourth-grader Lindsay Berliner (Colts Neck) and third-grader Kieran Collins (Brick) as they cut the ribbon at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s (JDRF) annual ONEWalk. The students are leaders of a Ranney School team called “Team WHATEVER”. The team walks in support of Ranney students, five in all, including Kieran and Lindsay, who have Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). Thanks to the incredible support of friends and family, Team WHATEVER won JDRF’s recent Team Challenge to earn a spot at the official ribbon-cutting line.
 
Team WHATEVER was founded in 2010 after Kieran was diagnosed with Type 1 at the age of 3. He named the Team “WHATEVER” because he called his insulin shots “whatevers.” Lindsay was diagnosed in 2012 and the two Ranney students teamed up to raise awareness among their Ranney classmates and together, do WHATEVER it takes to cure Type 1. Through the past two walks, Team WHATEVER raised $25,000 in support of research to treat, prevent and cure T1D. In addition to participating in the ONEWalk, a group of Ranney second-graders in Lindsay’s class held a button and magnet sale in the Spring of 2014. The students made more than 600 buttons and donated their proceeds ($2,700) to JDRF.
 
This year, Team WHATEVER raised more than $15,600 for the 2015 walk and expanded its team of walkers. ONEWalk is JDRF’s largest T1D event in the world; the event raises fund to “turn Type One into Type None.”

Approximately 200,000 youth (under age 20) and more than 1 million adults live with Type 1 Diabetes. By the year 2050, JDRF estimates that nearly 600,000 youth may have the disease.

Kieran shares the following advice to kids newly diagnosed with Type 1, “Diabetes is hard when you first get it. It’s getting a lot easier now that there are pumps and sensors. The main rule is that you can’t sneak food, but you can eat whatever you want. All you need to do is get insulin. I know it will hurt, but you will get used to it after a while. And someday, I know there will be a cure for diabetes and you can be a normal kid again.”
 
Lindsay shares, “My insulin pump and my constant glucose monitor let my mom follow my blood sugars on her phone wherever she is. These technologies let me be a part of normal activities, like playing ‘Fiona’ in my camp’s production of SHREK. I am looking forward to seeing my friends at the walk!”
 
Thanks to the generosity of friends and families supporting Team WHATVER, there have already been significant improvements in the technology available to manage T1D and more breakthroughs are on the horizon. JDRF is funding exciting research into a variety of therapies including an artificial pancreas, beta cell encapsulation and smart insulin.
 
For more info, please visit http://www2.jdrf.org/goto/WHATEVER. The Ranney School community will also be participating in two fundraising and awareness walks on Sunday, October 18 as part of its Panthers with a Purpose community service collaborative:  American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk at Point Pleasant Boardwalk and Red Bank’s CROP Walk for Hunger at Red Bank Regional High School.
 
 

This article was updated October 13, 2015
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Ranney School

235 Hope Road
Tinton Falls, NJ 07724
Tel. 732.542.4777
Our mission is to know and value every child, nurturing intellectual curiosity and confidence, and inspiring students to lead honorably, think creatively, and contribute meaningfully to society.