JDRF was founded by Lee Ducat, Carol Lurie, Erwin Lurie and a group of parents whose children live with type 1 diabetes (T1D). I believe in their clear conviction: through research, T1D can and will be cured. Over the 50+ years since, JDRF support has changed the lives of people living with type 1 diabetes everywhere, including my own family.
Like these JDRF founders and countless others, my support of JDRF began with my child. I have been a T1D parent since early 2011 when our daughter Sarah was diagnosed at 9 years old.
Our company, Floyd's 99 Barbershops, was founded by my husband, Paul and his two brothers Rob and Bill, on the foundation of providing a great experience. A barber shop is a community pillar, and we have always supported charities in the communities we serve, but we were searching for something to get behind on a national basis - to truly make a difference on a larger basis. And then T1D found its way into our lives … this was our answer.
Our involvement started with a desire to make a difference with something that was completely out of our control. I tend to be one of those people who by nature roll up their sleeves and jump into action when something happens. When the light switch of T1D flipped on, all I really cared about was my daughter and trying to help her come to some sort of acceptance about something neither of us understood.
And that's when I said to Sarah: I’m not sure why this happened to you, but we have the ability to help you and help other people living with this disease.
And so, like so many other families do, we started with a JDRF One Walk. As Sarah had success fundraising during the walk, we met the amazing local JDRF staff team, and our annual August campaign was born. We have an amazing team here at Floyd’s who do all the hard work developing and implementing the campaign - and our staff and franchise partners bring it to life across the country. Throughout the years, Paul and I have learned how many people T1D touches. We started hearing stories from our employees and clients about their T1D experiences, and they have cemented our dedication to raising funds. We are so proud that over the 12 years since Sarah's life changed forever, Floyd’s has raised more than $2 million for JDRF.
I'm in a unique position after my recent promotion to President of Floyd's to keep my sleeves rolled up and continue to grow a company that will only get better with its difference making through raising money and awareness. And most importantly, I'm also Sarah’s Mom. I’m along with her on this journey, amazed every day by her and by everyone whose lives are touched by T1D. I've been driven to learn more about what differences our fundraising makes and I've recently had some amazing opportunities to get behind the scenes learning about the research and the challenges we face navigating health care and accessibility to therapies.
Together, we’ll continue to help every single person living with T1D.