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Ranney Families Give Back to Help Find a Cure for Type 1 Diabetes

Lower School students to lead upcoming fundraising walk.
Update: Team WHATEVER ended up raising more than $15,600 in total to support Type 1 Diabetes research and cut the ribbon to start the October 2015 JDRF ONEWalk. See new photos herein!

On October 11, a team of more than 60 walkers, comprised of Ranney School families, teachers, nurses and friends, will 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 has raised more than $11,000 for the upcoming 2015 walk and has 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 or to join the walk, 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.

Photo: Team WHATEVER at the 2014 JDRF Walk.
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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. 

We envision Ranney School as a nurturing learning community, in which families, faculty, alumni, and all of Ranney’s constituents collaborate to know and value every child, foster individual talents, sustain powerful connections between children and adults, and graduate resilient, globally-minded citizens.