“We make monetary donations to JDRF each year, but it feels a bit impersonal,” begins Engineering Vice President Raman Ohri. “I want SEP to feel personally connected to the causes we support.”
It’s a personal cause for Ohri, who captained the SEP’s team that participated in last Saturday’s JDRF Walk to a Cure.
“My wife developed Type 1 a year after giving birth to our son. This is somewhat unusual in an adult and took a while to diagnose and treat. It was a tough time – she was miserable, had no energy, and dropped weight she couldn’t afford to lose,” explains Ohri.
The work of JDRF is also personal to the more than 25 members of the team who walked during fundraiser. Whether personally affected by family members or working on software products that are related to this disease, SEPeers feel connected to the cause.
Project Manager Bill Tetmeyer has a family member with Type 1 diabetes and Software Engineer Aaron Alexander was diagnosed with Type 1 at an early age. “The Walk to a Cure provides an opportunity to get more personally involved. It’s important to help raise funds for JDRF to continue the ongoing search for a cure,” said Alexander.
With nearly 3 million people diagnosed with TD1 in America alone and more than $110 million spent on research in 2012 JDRF is worth the investment to not just Ohri, Tetmeyer, and Alexander but to everyone touched by the effects of TD1. Aiding JDRF and its research means much to each of them. Ohri acknowledges JDRF’s dedication, “The quality of the organization is outstanding, with a large percentage of the funds they collect going directly to research.”
All three understand how important the research JDRF undertakes but also don’t take lightly the responsibility of pro-actively fundraising and supporting the non-profit organization. JDRF is the only global organization with a strategic plan to progressively remove the impact of T1D from people’s lives until it is not longer a threat to anyone. “It is time for a complete cure and the JDRF is funding research to accomplish that,” explains Tetmeyer.
