For us at the New Jersey Metro & Rockland County Chapter, October is One Walk season. We spend almost every weekend connecting with families and individuals, some familiar faces, others new to our type 1 diabetes (T1D) community.

As we approach our first One Walk event of the season, Event Chair Jim McCue sends each and every person participating and supporting One Walk a note:

To my extended family,

Walk season is here. As the excitement builds I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you for your support and confidence during the build up to walk. When I accepted this responsibility I had a very specific vision. Community. Through all of your amazing events and efforts, that is what I feel we have. I have had the honor of attending hockey games, magic shows, corn hole tournaments, nights out at restaurants and bars and so much more. We have seen the start of meet-up groups for all different age groups from toddlers to adults. We have members of the chapter doing the bike run, walking One Walk and running in the Disney marathon weekend races. This has made us a stronger community, a stronger family. Early numbers show that this may be our best year for fundraising ever. That is because of all of you. The T1D warriors, the parents, the siblings …

Someone said once friends are the family you get to choose. We may have not chosen to be family, but through our common bond we have become family. My hope one day is to say “remember when Danny had diabetes.” But until that day we will fight as a team to help find and fund a cure. Until that day comes we will work with Breakthrough T1D and their partners to help find better and less invasive ways to treat and prevent T1D.

Again, from my entire family I want to extend our thanks for entrusting us to steer the ship this walk season. We look forward to meeting as many of you as we can at the walk sites and building lasting friendships.

Until there is a cure,

Jim McCue Jr.

Team Danny X

One Walk event chair