My New Hero

I was at the Children with Diabetes Quilt for Life display in front of the Capital today. I walked by the display on my way into work this morning and found out that the ADA’s Call to Congress was going to be at 10am (certainly worth skipping out of work for an hour for). The speeches were heart-felt and motivational. Jeff Hitchcock, who started ChildrenWithDiabetes, and his daughter Marissa were great. After the speeches, I wandered around the display of over 500 quilts from kids (and families) with diabetes. I always feel like such a goober

"No More Rhyming Now I Mean It!"

"Does anybody want a peanut?"
A peanut? Yup: A peanut.
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when I’m around folks at these events. I’m checking out who has insulin pumps on and trying to guess which kid in a family is the one with diabetes, but I rarely have the nerve to talk to anyone. Strange.

Anyway, there were some really great quilts out there (including two from the Diabetes OC: Amy’s and Allison’s) and I got a little choked up at a few of them.

But there were two that really stuck in my head and made me laugh.

First: Rochelle Biancardi. I chuckled when I read “4 FT OF PURE IMAGINATION” and “55 LBS OF RAW ENERGY,” but then I laughed when I realized she was wearing a tie dye t-shirt, a wide grin, and was holding a chicken under her arm!



And my new hero (I think I want to be this kid) is a 7 year-old boy named Kelse.
His quilt says it all:


CUCAMONGA!

You can check them all out here.

And then, on my way home from the office, I passed by the tent again as they were loading all the quilts into a U-Haul van. I stopped Jeff just to thank him and shake his hand. He was (of course) very friendly, and encouraged me to submit a quilt.

We shall see, we shall see...