On April 13, the Deeney family will be honored by the JDRF South Jersey chapter for the work has done over nearly 30 years to organize and fundraise for various events.
Tom, Lorraine and their son Brian will be joined by the two’s other three daughters on April 13 at Adelphia Restaurant in Deptford starting at 6 p.m. Tickets start at $275 for individuals, $550 for couples, and include live auctions to raise money for the South Jersey chapter. They can be purchased by visiting www.JDRF.org/SouthJersey/Gala2019.
JDRF, which stands for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, advocates for research and a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
The Deeneys said they’ve lost count of the numerous events they’ve been involved in or have helped fundraise for.
“My favorite thing to do is the walk,” said Lorraine. “The entire family helps out at the walk. Tom ran it at one time, and then registration, he was the chairperson for it, and now my son-in-law runs the registration.”
Tom has been in various positions throughout the 30-year time span and now plans to step down soon as the chapter’s president.
Tom and Lorraine said they joined the nonprofit when Brian was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 2 years old.
“I see my parents as kind of the model on how to raise a child in the right way who lives with diabetes,” said Brian. “It’s not something to be looked at as a disability. It’s something you have, it’s not something you did and it’s a part of you.”
Since Brian’s diagnosis, the Deeneys are all affected by it in one way or another, with one child working in biomedical engineering, another child working with children who have special needs, Brian working with COPD and asthma research, and their spouses having jobs in the medical field.
“It’s learning to accept people with different problems,” said Lorraine.
When fundraising, Tom said his family takes an educational approach to the foundation and the disease and asks people to continue supporting causes that are worthwhile, or find something that supports someone else.
“I always tell people that when you get involved in fundraising, there are going to be a lot of people that surprise you,” said Tom, holding back tears. “There are going to be people that disappoint you, and you’re going to meet people who don’t understand how much it means to you.”
Since they began supporting the nonprofit, the family has seen, firsthand, the effect of their contributions with the advancement of technology.
“My mother-in-law used to sharpen a needle on a stove, and it was just one generation of change,” said Lorraine. The family went on to add Brian can now wear a continuous glucose monitor, and see his levels on his phone, his friends’ phones, fiancee’s phone and his parents’ phone.
“It’ll send them an alarm if I get below 55, and it’ll alarm me if I drop below 70, and I’ll try to prevent them from getting any messages,” said Brian.
The family said they’ve been able to grow the JDRF walk that now takes place at Camden County College – Blackwood, from 200 participants and $20,000 raised, to now having several thousand people and nearly $1 million raised.
“It’s most rewarding to me to see how advanced the technology has come since Brian was little,” said Lorraine.
“There’s still a lot to be done in diabetes research,” said Tom. “We’ve got a lot of technology and it makes things easier, but just in the past two months, we learned of a young child who died from high blood sugar.”
The family keeps note that “insulin isn’t a cure” with the deaths of people who had diabetes, and they added that people who live with it will always have to keep it in mind and constantly monitor their levels.
“It doesn’t take much to throw off their blood sugars,” said Lorraine.
The Deeneys said they’re excited for the April 13 gala, and are also gearing up for numerous summer fundraising events, such as a golf tournament (June 3) at Tavistock, a walk in Wildwood, a destination bike ride on June 15, and others. More events are available at www.JDRF.org/SouthJersey.
