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Kids & Family

Local Moms Help Raise Over $13,000 to Fight Diabetes

Kecia Elder and Terri Collins are driven to raise money to fight this disease.

Kecia Elder and Terri Collins recently helped students at raise over $13,000 to fight type 1 diabetes. These two local moms are determined to increase awareness of this disease, one that both of these ladies tackle daily.

Elder has an 11-year-old son, Kaleb, who was two when he was diagnosed, and Collins has an 8-year-old daughter, Karson who was four when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Both ladies have been involved with the JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) for several years. These moms are not just going to live with it, they are working hard to fight the disease.

“We have children with type 1 diabetes so we wanted to raise money to find a cure,” Elder said.

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Collins and Elder brought their mission to raise awareness and money to find a cure for type 1 diabetes to Dacula Elementary School.

“We organized the walk and lead fundraising efforts at the school,” Elder said. “We also passed out information to the students and teachers about type 1 diabetes.”

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The walk was held in honor of three kids at Dacula Elementary School with diabetes, Kaleb Elder (fifth grade), Karson Collins (third grade), Sofia Arenas (second grade). Students at the elementary school talked about juvenile diabetes (type 1) in class to help raise awareness, and brought in money for a two-week period to help raise money for a cure.

“Dacula Elementary raised $8,895.94, and with a matching gift of $5,000.00 from Novartis Pharmaceuticals the grand total raised for JDRF was $13,895.84,” Elder said proudly.

Elder and Collins are committed to fighting type 1 diabetes because it is a challenge they see their children face daily.

“We try to make life as easy as possible for them and as normal, but they still have to stop to check blood sugars and get insulin many times during the day,” Elder explained. “We raise money because we want to make a difference in the lives of these sweet children that have type 1 diabetes. We want to help find a cure so they don't have to endure all that they face with having diabetes.”

Elder and Collins also want to help educate people on the difference between type 1 and type 2 diabetes.

“I think having the walk at the school has helped raise compassion and awareness for type 1 diabetes,” Elder said. “It gets people talking about it and gets more involved in this cause and other causes that come about.”

If anyone would like to help Elder and Collins in their mission to find a cure for type 1 diabetes, you can make a donation by visiting www.jdrf.org, click on get involved, click on Walk to Cure Diabetes, input Dacula Elementary as the walker and it will give you a link to donate to their walk.

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