Children’s Congress is an event held every 2 years that brings together over 150 youth delegates, ages 4-17, in Washington D.C. to testify before Congress on the importance of type 1 diabetes research funding. The Greater Iowa chapter’s Children’s Congress delegate, Sarah Horn, kept a blog throughout this year’s Children’s Congress to recount all of her experiences. Thank you for your hard work, Sarah!

Day One:

The first day of Children’s Congress was a long one, but exciting!  It was incredible to meet so many other kids who have type 1 diabetes (T1D) and want a cure right now!  We were all fired up to get started.

Our first connection with CC was on our connecting flight from Detroit to Washington, DC.  The kids had all agreed to wear JDRF shirts on the flights so we could spot each other, and it worked!  We sat directly behind one of the Oklahoma delegates on the airplane.  We chatted for a little while at he beginning of the flight, but we were both tired from traveling, so we took naps.  Unfortunately, we were reminded how tough it can be it can be to have T1D when he went low during his nap and had a seizure!  It was scary for everyone, but luckily his parents had their diabetes emergency kit and gave him some glucagon.  He was better in no time.  But he had a great story to tell his Senators and Representatives about why diabetes stinks!

Once we got to the hotel, we got to start meeting other delegates.  There are 161 delegates in all, from all over the world!  Some of them have diabetic alert dogs.

Our first time we all got together we sang the “Promise to Remember Me” song with Crystal Bowersox.  Crystal has had T1D since she was 6 and was a runner up on American Idol.  She has an awesome voice, and it was really fun.  Then, we got to meet Gary Hall, Jr.  He’s an Olympic Gold medal swimmer who also has type 1.  It was awesome to meet grown ups who do great things with T1D.

I can’t wait to see what we do on Day 2! Children’s Congress is awesome!