{"id":9357,"date":"2026-07-01T17:26:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T17:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.breakthrought1d.org\/minnesotadakotas\/?post_type=jdrf_event&p=9357"},"modified":"2026-07-31T17:56:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T17:56:59","slug":"rekstad","status":"publish","type":"jdrf_event","link":"https:\/\/www.breakthrought1d.org\/minnesotadakotas\/events\/rekstad\/","title":{"rendered":"Fund A Cure with Kari Rekstad | Breakthrough T1D Minneapolis Gala 2026"},"author":846,"featured_media":9399,"template":"","event-categories":[1061],"class_list":["post-9357","jdrf_event","type-jdrf_event","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","jdrf_event_category-other"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFund A Cure with Kari Rekstad | Breakthrough T1D Minneapolis Gala 2026 - Minnesota and Dakotas Chapter<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.breakthrought1d.org\/minnesotadakotas\/events\/rekstad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fund A Cure with Kari Rekstad | Breakthrough T1D Minneapolis Gala 2026 - Minnesota and Dakotas Chapter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kari's Story As told by her mom, Kirsten Rekstad November 27, 2017.\u00a0 I will never forget that day.\u00a0 It was the Monday after the Thanksgiving weekend, we had just spent the holiday weekend in MN with our family.\u00a0 I was so frustrated and annoyed that Kari wasn\u2019t feeling good, I thought she was just tired from the weekend.\u00a0 But then I\u00a0really\u00a0looked at her and realized how pale she was and how she truly did not look well.\u00a0 When we went to the pediatricians office, they weighed her on 2 different scales because of the amount of weight that she had lost since her last appt.\u00a0 The nurse took Kari out of the room so the doctor could come in and tell me that she had high blood sugars and had Type 1 Diabetes.\u00a0 I went numb, the tears started flowing.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even know what Type 1 was as I\u2019d only ever heard of Type 2.\u00a0 I felt guilty as a mom for not realizing this sooner \u2013 what could I have done differently?\u00a0 And, more importantly, what did this mean for Kari and her future? The days that followed were a blur of education we never wanted to learn. An all-day class at Children's Mercy in KC where we practiced shots, studied nutrition labels, and tried to absorb a decade's worth of medical knowledge in a matter of hours. Then came the nighttime finger pricks and carb counts tucked into her school lunchbox. The quiet worry every time she stayed over at a friend's house: who's going to help her with a shot if she needs one? The relentless rhythm of highs and lows. The transition from shots to a pump. The monitors, the math, the constant vigilance that never really turns off.\u00a0 You never great a break from T1D. That was almost nine years ago. Kari has now lived more than half her life with T1D and she has never once let it define her limits. She is, without question, a T1D warrior. Now we're facing our next chapter: in the fall of 2027, Kari heads off to college. As a mom, that transition naturally comes with its own nerves under any circumstances, but layer T1D on top, and it's a different kind of letting go. Learning to trust that she can manage this on her own, in a dorm room instead of our kitchen, without me down the hall to bring her a Capri Sun when she\u2019s low in the middle of the night. It's the moment we've been building toward since that day in 2017, and it's both thrilling and terrifying all at once. Kari believes there will be a cure in her lifetime. As her mom, I believe it too. \u00a0And I know that belief only becomes reality with people like you standing behind us. Your support doesn't just fund research. It funds every T1D warrior's next chapter. Every college move-in day, every milestone we get to watch our kids reach with one less thing standing in their way.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.breakthrought1d.org\/minnesotadakotas\/events\/rekstad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Minnesota and Dakotas Chapter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/breakthrought1dHQ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-31T17:56:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.breakthrought1d.org\/minnesotadakotas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/147\/2026\/07\/Untitled-design-13-819x1024.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"819\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@breakthrought1d\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.breakthrought1d.org\\\/minnesotadakotas\\\/events\\\/rekstad\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.breakthrought1d.org\\\/minnesotadakotas\\\/events\\\/rekstad\\\/\",\"name\":\"Fund A Cure with Kari Rekstad | Breakthrough T1D Minneapolis Gala 2026 - 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