After spending a weekend in St. Louis at the American Diabetes Association’s Community Volunteer Leadership Conference, I’m more convinced than ever of the vital work being done by the ADA and how important it is for us as cyclists to keep raising funds through the NEC and other Tour de Cure events to support the ADA’s efforts.

From research on preventing and curing this diabolical disease, to advocacy in our states’ and nation’s capital on behalf of the almost 21 million people with diabetes, to programs that help kids and adults get through each day with this affliction, the ADA is doing an incredible job. And as diabetes explodes to almost epidemic proportions, the need for our help as cycling fund-raisers grows every day.

The theme of the CVLC was “The Many Faces of Diabetes.” But I’ve come away from the conference with my own theme for the 2008 New England Classic:

LET’S FACE IT:WE MUST BEAT DIABETES

At the CVLC I heard devoted researchers like Dr. Sam Dagogo-Jack of the University of Tennessee talk about the progress being made in laboratories to prevent and cure diabetes. I listened to him talk excitedly about how research works. He shared stories of his own volunteer work and about the first time he stood outside a shopping center as a fund-raising volunteer and explained to his young children that they were “begging for money for diabetes.”

Before he began talking about his research, Dr. Clay Semenkovich looked into the audience of volunteers and expressed his heartfelt thanks for the work we do to support his efforts to find a cure for diabetes. He then told us of his high school English teacher who inspired him to do research when she died much too young and was unable to read the books she loved in the last six months of her life because diabetes had taken her eyesight.

Unfortunately we also heard on the first day of the conference how diabetes research was dealt a blow when Congress fell two votes short of overriding President Bush’s veto of a funding bill for the National Institutes of Health. That veto means a cut in NIH diabetes research budgets by 20 percent. And the cuts will come at a time when demand for research funding exceeds resources. There are 75 ongoing diabetes research projects in eastern New England alone. This makes it that much more important for us to help the ADA fill a widening gap in research funding.

CYCLISTS WE NEED TO PICK UP THE SLACK!

We can’t let researchers and people with diabetes fall off the back of the pack in the race to beat diabetes. When you join us on the NEC in raising funds for the ADA you are serving as a domestique for diabetes. We do the grunt work to get researchers and people with diabetes across that finish line.

But we’re in a race that’s much longer than the Tour de France and for people with diabetes there are no rest days. Every day brings another stage and every stage brings the possibility of a nasty climb – you just never know. You only know that diabetes is there every day. Every day until we beat it.

So if you’re ready to join us in the fight, register today to ride in the New England Classic by clicking on the link to the right. I hope to see you on the road in July.