JDRF Tree
Posted on February 17, 2008
Filed Under Juvenile Diabetes | 1 Comment
I attended the JDRF Family Retreat in St. Louis this last weekend and had a really good time. I had several meetings with the people of the St. Louis chapter. I helped out and learned a lot.
In a meeting I had with Marie, we talked about all sorts of things including where Springfield/Ozarks stands with the JDRF. We have only met once, and although we all have big ideas…we have to start small.
Where we stand right now:
We are a council. Springfield JDRF is standing in the shade of the St. Louis chapter tree. A council is a group of people (like us that are meeting this next week) that are committed to fundraising for the JDRF. We work directly under the St. Louis chapter and we are still in the early planning stages. We are pulling together as a group and this is where we have to start. We have no paid staff members. We are just a group banding together to take it to the next level.
The next level is A Branch. This is Springfield’s goal to become an established branch of the St. Louis chapter by Summer 2008. In order to become a branch, we have to implement a board of directors. We must have a solid volunteer base. We must have committed members to our group that are willing to work hard for the cause. And that cause is to raise money for research for Type 1 diabetes. When we are effectively raising money on a consistent basis as a branch, we can then move to the next step.
The next step is to become our own chapter. Although I love the idea of becoming our own chapter, we can’t start at the top without building a base (or a strong trunk of our tree). We must work with the St. Louis chapter, and why wouldn’t we want to? When working under the direction of the St. Louis chapter, we then have resources to help lead us a good direction. Just because our money we raise is going to the St. Louis chapter…doesn’t mean that it’s not going toward the cause. It is. And again, that cause is to raise money for research to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Again, we are starting small, we have to. But we have to know that every effort we make is going to a good cause. Thank you to all of you who have volunteered your time to meet and get this started.
Please don’t forget about our next meeting. Monday, February 25, 2008 at 7:00 pm at The Library Center on South Campbell Street in the auditorium. We will have Marie Davis (the Executive Director of the St. Louis Chapter) and Karl Sestak from the JDRF national office. This will be a great meeting, and I look forward to seeing all of you there!
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It’s amazing. I like it. Sounds good to me, even though I can’t agree with everything< that is written here
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