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Event Recap: Riding on Insulin Ontario 2014

There are really big Type 1 inspirations, like Kris Freeman participating in his 4th Olympics this winter, or Sebastien Sasseville and his OutRun Diabetes campaign. These great feats are amazing at bringing a sense of pride to the diabetes community, and generally inspiring people to push their comfort zones and overcome challenges. But as we are all-too-often aware of in life with diabetes: balance is important; in celebrating the great achievements, we need to also be aware of and celebrate the small accomplishments.

This is why I love the Riding on Insulin (ROI) events with which we have partnered over the past couple of years. If you’re not familiar with ROI, they are a great US non-profit that provides outdoor and active programming for young people living with Type 1 diabetes and their siblings. Whenever their ski and snowboard programming have travelled to Canada we have partnered with ROI, bringing in adults living with Type 1 diabetes to be there as mentors to the kids and their families. For a lot of the younger people out to these events, this is their first time on downhill skis or a snowboard. Watching them push themselves to learn a new active skill—regardless of how many times they fall down or their blood glucose goes a bit out of whack from learning a new activity—is always inspiring. But equally great are all the CIM volunteers that come out for the day to help out and be there as role models for the kids.

Following each of these events is a ski/board day just for adults living with Type 1. This year we saw a great group out at the Ontario Ski/Board Day. It included mostly familiar faces, but some new ones as well. We’d like to thank everyone that made it out to this year’s events in Ontario— kids, parents, volunteers, and sponsors!

For more information about the Riding on Insulin ski and snowboard day coming up in Alberta, click here: http://ridingoninsulin.org/alberta/

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