“If you know me, then by now you know how much I love the Kennebunks Tour de Cure,” Holly Barber of Portland, who grew up in Brewer, said in a press release. “This is my fifth year volunteering for Tour de Cure. This is my fourth year riding the 50K in the Tour de Cure. This is my third year on the committee that organizes this beautiful event. This is my second year as a team captain for Spokesmodels. And this is my first year as vice chairperson of the event. And I wish Tour de Cure did not have to exist.”
In conjunction with National Diabetes Month, the American Diabetes Association kicked off on Nov. 13 its fundraising campaign in Maine for the 2015 Kennebunks Tour de Cure bicycle ride. The Kennebunks Tour de Cure will take place June 14 at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm to help raise critical funds for diabetes research, education and advocacy. Tour de Cure is designed for anyone from the occasional rider to the experienced cyclist, with 5-kilometer, 25K, 50K, 100K and 100-mile routes available.
“I got back into Tour de Cure for several reasons — my dad being my primary reason — but I love cycling, giving back to others, meeting new people, and fighting diabetes,” Barber said.
“Diabetes was never really ‘invisible’ in my household. Dad would have a 10-minute heads up before dinner was ready so he could go test and take his insulin. We were devastatingly late for Thanksgiving in Bremen one year because we had to turn around in Belfast to go back to Brewer to get dad’s insulin. SweetTarts are the stocking-stuffer of choice [in our family], a note-worthy ‘low’ at my 21st birthday dinner ended with me yelling at a bartender for orange juice, and years of my family volunteering with the American Diabetes Association with Walktoberfest, Anything Goes Competition, support groups, committee meetings and MDI Tour de Cure.”
This year’s fundraising goal of the Kennebunks Tour de Cure is $410,000. The American Diabetes Association invests millions of dollars in New England, including the Jackson Lab research facility in Bar Harbor, and the Joslin Diabetes Centers in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.
“In my adulthood, I have realized how invisible diabetes is in our society,” Barber said. “Unless it it is the terrible punchline to an uneducated and offensive joke, the collective ‘we’ does not discuss diabetes nearly enough. We don’t see people testing their blood sugar at restaurants, school, work or sometimes even at home. We don’t notice someone counting the carbs in their meal and setting their insulin pumps to accommodate the intake. There are 29 million mothers, fathers, grandparents, children and neighbors living with diabetes today. That does not account for the 86 million Americans considered to have pre-diabetes. In 2012, there were 1.7 million new diagnoses of diabetes. That means roughly 4,657 people could be diagnosed tomorrow with diabetes. These are the scary statistics that make diabetes the seventh-leading cause of death in America.”
Barber said her biggest “Aha!” moment came this past year. The American Diabetes Association sets fundraising goals based on funding projections needed for education, advocacy and research — 74 cents of every dollar it raises goes to the whole mission, and much of raised funds stay in New England for research projects or Camp Carefree in New Hampshire. “So here’s the big picture for me,” she said. “When we don’t reach our fundraising goals, that translates to less education regarding this disease, less advocacy, and — most importantly — promising research projects being cut, taking us farther away from a cure.”
For information, call the American Diabetes Association at 800-DIABETES (800-342-2383) or visit diabetes.org.