Team Hoffmanderson rocks the JDRF Walk

Last weekend was the JDRF's Manhattan Walk to Cure Diabetes. I've been walking since I moved to New York (10 years of fundraising!) and B's been on the team since we met in 2005. Every year, we raise a bit more money and every year I am just completely mushed by the generosity and complete amazingness of the people in our lives. Coworkers, families, and friends always answer our pleas for donations with open hearts and wallets, and it's touching to see what happens when everyone gets together for a good cause:

Pump? Check. Dexcom? Check. Amazing friends, family, husband? Check.

On Walk day itself, Team Hoffmanderson had raised a whopping $5,633 - you can tell by the obnoxious DayGlo signs I made and carried around! It was a HUGE amount, and a jaw-dropping record for us. (We even crushed the record set from our wedding registry fundraising, and I never thought we'd get there.) At press time, the Team has raised more than $6,000, and I imagine we'll have even more once corporate matches come in.

But it's not just about the donations. The money's important, of course, and that's why we do the Walk year after year. It's not why I love doing the Walk, though. If you have diabetes, you know that we all wear our disease a little differently. Some of us are full-on advocates, some of us blog about the D right with the latest book we're reading or the antics of our yoga class. We run the gamut from full-frontal tubing to discreet spots in which to tuck our pump, from telling anyone and everyone we're a PWD to keeping it private. Me? I'm a little bit of both. I wear my gear loud and proud, and most everyone who knows me knows I'm Type 1. No one's ever called me shy. But like Karen over at Bitter-Sweet, I'm a liar liar pants on fire. I don't really talk with people about how awful diabetes is, or how scared I am of complications, or how much work keeping myself alive is - I don't like to talk about the bad stuff because I don't want to be seen as sick.

But every fall, I do talk about it. I talk about the complications, the staggering number of us with diabetes, the number of kids getting diagnosed every day, the sheer magnitude of finger sticks and set changes and other stabby moments in the day of a PWD. I talk about these things and it makes my skin itch - I'm hugely uncomfortable with it, and I have to set my jaw and do it anyway because it's important.

And every year, the outpouring of support just knocks me over. I'm lucky in so very many ways, and the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes reminds me of that. Thanks to everyone who donated or wished us luck, and extra thanks to the members of Team Hoffmanderson:

Team Hoffmanderson!

P.S. More Walk day photos can be found here