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THE 2023 ADVENTURE TEAM

The CIM Adventure Team, founded in 2016, is a team of exceptional individuals from the Type 1 diabetes community who come together to redefine life with Type 1 diabetes, achieve personal goals, and raise money for CIM to help more people realize life without limits.

 

Each year, people from around the world apply to be a member of CIM’s Adventure Team. Applications are accepted in January. A selection committee reviews each and every application and makes recommendations to help build a diverse team, announced in February each year.

 

We are excited to present the 2023 Adventure Team, completing the Teton Crest Trail in August 2023.

CURRENT AWESOMENESS:

$44,272
OF OUR $45,000 GOAL

Total Donations 281

98%
Ann Arbor, Michigan | dx 1968

Abby Elias

In high school Abby took a career aptitude test that suggested she should follow an outdoor career in science, such as becoming a forest ranger. Instead, Abby became an attorney (after getting her undergraduate degree in anthropology.) Abby's legal career included several years in the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice, starting in the Office of Indian Rights, and later more than 30 years in city law departments in Michigan (Detroit and Ann Arbor), with a few years in private practice in between where she took on a pro bono case representing an individual on death row in Georgia. Abby played and refereed rugby, and earned a second degree black belt in aikido before becoming a parent to three kids, who were adopted in China and Bolivia.
SUPPORT ABBY'S FUNDRAISING
San Diego, California | dx 2012

Andres Arriaga

Being diagnosed with diabetes was Andres' windows into the outdoors. It started with climbing and has gradually led into any and all things outdoors. Often times people forget Andres has diabetes because he is constantly going and pushing himself to his limits, until it’s time to re-up on carbs or change a sensor. Currently he works for a non-profit guiding outdoor trips for kids from underserved communities and attempts to inspire them to seek the transformative power of the outdoors.
SUPPORT ANDRES' FUNDRAISING
Hillsboro, Oregon | dx 1993

Bobby Crawford

Living with T1D has been a life-long experience for Bobby - he was diagnosed at 18 months old! Every day is a new challenge, and the Adventure Trek is a once in a lifetime opportunity that he is honored to participate in. Bobby grew up, went to college, and met his wife Ellen in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. He loves spending time in nature, and for years had been in love with the vast, rugged, and beautiful landscapes and culture of the Pacific Northwest. In 2019, Bobby and his family were finally able to make the move, and now reside in northwest Oregon with their two pugs Percy and Fig, and hedgehog Ember. Both professionally, and as a hobby, Bobby is a software architect. In his free time, he is also a woodworker, rock climber, cyclist and major lover of non-fiction books.
SUPPORT BOBBY'S FUNDRAISING
Essex Junction, Vermont | dx 1993

Courtney Jones

Courtney is an adult oncology registered nurse originally from Philadelphia, PA whom has started travel nursing this past year in both Maine and Vermont. For the past 27 years, she has been determined to not let the challenges associated with living with type one diabetes define her. When she is not working at the hospital, she enjoys spending time with her niece, teaching herself how to cross country ski, finding new hiking trails, and spending the day on her road bike! She seeks the adventure of travel, making new connections, yet enjoys the serenity of quiet mornings at home. She is passionate about diabetes education and advocacy work to ensure that people living with type one diabetes have the resources to live a healthy life!
SUPPORT THE TEAM'S FUNDRAISING
San Fransisco, California | dx 2001

Hannah Bulmer

Living with type 1 diabetes is a fundamental part of Hannah's identity. The challenges and opportunities it has brought to her have shaped a major part of her life and the way she approaches the world. Diabetes has taught her to be fearless in the face of uncertainty, how to be prepared for anything and how to trust in herself that she can handle any situation. It has taught her resiliency, how to lean on others for support when she needs it, how to find community in others and how to build community where there is none. It's taught her how to handle disappointment, and frustrations, to be patient and to love her body even in the hardest of times. It's taught her a lot about gratitude. Diabetes has even shaped Hannah's career. Growing up Hannah learned numbers and math at an extremely young age so she could understand her blood sugars and insulin dosages, and her passion for mathematics and technology landed her in the software engineering field building mobile apps. Hannah's current dream job is to work on the Dexcom app or similar product, where she can bring her engineering skills and diabetes experience together to really make an impact for other people with T1D who rely on this technology.
SUPPORT HANNAH'S FUNDRAISING
Colorado | dx 1994

Kiersten Frazier

Kiersten's parents’ first question when she was diagnosed was, “Can she still go backpacking?” She grew up with no limits on outdoor adventure and no boundaries on what she could do, and it’s carried into her adult life. Kiersten is proud to see what she can do and keep experiencing new landscapes in what it means to be an active T1D. She loves getting to the top of a fourteener just as much as lounging on the edge of a serene lake on a warm summer day, because it means she is getting out there.
SUPPORT KIERSTEN'S FUNDRAISING
Norwalk, Connecticut | dx 2020

Marissa Letizio

Bio: Marissa was a typical 21 year old girl, before April 8th, 2020 when she discovered that many of the symptoms she was having were common side effects of undiagnosed Type 1 diabetes. Before her diagnosis Marissa was a competitive division 1 ice hockey player, a future Occupational Therapist, a faithful friend, an avid hiker, and someone always looking to face life's challenges head on with determination. After her diagnosis, Marissa is nothing less than all of these things, but now she’s a graduated college student and working full-time at her dream job with a more instilled appreciation for this fleeting life. Diabetes has taught her that life’s too short to drive with the windows up, and every day should be romanticized.
SUPPORT MARISSA'S FUNDRAISING
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | dx 2021

Meg Woodin

Meg is a born-and-raised up-upstate New Yorker who moved to Philadelphia in 2016 by way of her college sweetheart. In between working full-time as an Interior Designer, she can be found hiking deep in the woods with her dogs Zoey & Ash or happily entangled in a fiber arts project. Meg was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in April 2021 and had the surreal experience of being taught how to administer insulin and finger sticks entirely over Zoom. Sensing that a fresh T1D diagnosis was something that could easily take over and cause fear to dictate her life, Meg dove head-first into educating herself and others, training her Aussie Zoey to detect low blood sugars, and continuing to eat, travel, and adventure as she did before - of course with the new and ever-changing challenge of learning how to manage her diabetes. Over the last two years, she has continued to find the purest form of joy hiking, canoe camping, reading, and best of all, drinking good coffee!
SUPPORT MEG'S FUNDRAISING
London, Ontario|dx 2016

Mer Fraser

Mer (she/her/elle) was diagnosed with T1D at age 39. She's a queer, cis white settler living on lands known as Deshkan Ziibing (Antler River) / London, Ontario. These lands are connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties and Dish With One Spoon Covenant Wampum; they were also an Underground Railroad terminus point, home to the African Methodist Episcopal Church/Fugitive Slave Chapel. Mer lives and loves to catalyze community connection, solidarity, empowerment, health equity, love and joy in a community-inspired non-profit. She also loves adventuring with her shiniest human and dogfriend Jasper and enjoys coffee, popcorn, beach stones and woodstoves. Besides realizing the dream of hiking Teton Crest Trail through the awesome gift of being part of Adventure Team 2023, Mer hopes to one day knit a sweater.
SUPPORT MER'S FUNDRAISING
Texas | dx 2022

Tiffany Bucher

Tiffany lives in Dallas, Tx with her husband Doug and their dog, Remmy. Their world was turned upsidedown with Tiffany’s recent Type 1 diabetes diagnosis at 34 years old. However, almost one year in and their world is halfway back to right side up after finding some wonderful support networks and some truly inspirational, helpful, and kind people to guide them through. Tiffany was born into an aviation family and was raised with an overflowing spirit of adventure and travel. She is determined to continue that spirit while managing her blood sugar the best she can! She enjoys spending time outdoors and being active with Doug and Remmy, and will occasionally share her low snacks with them!
SUPPORT TIFFANY'S FUNDRAISING

CIM SUPPORT CREW

GUIDE - Berthoud, Colorado, USA | dx 1977

Michael Gaudet

Michael has been an athlete his entire life. The day he left the hospital for his T1D diagnosis, he went to a friend's house and played basketball. Michael decided right then that he would do everything he could to live past 50 years old (his Doctors' prognosis for him at that time). Since then Michael has been an amateur racing cyclist, race car driver, mountaineer, and powerlifter.
GUIDE | Lakefield, Ontario| dx 2017

Sarah Gaughan

Sarah has always had a love for the outdoors and has worked as an Ontario Junior Ranger, a canoe trip guide, and an outdoor educator. Diagnosed with type one diabetes in 2017, she considers herself extremely lucky to have crossed paths with Connected in Motion soon after, and has been involved with CIM ever since. Sarah completed a BSc in marine biology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and hopes to attend veterinary school in the future. In her free time Sarah enjoys hiking, camping, canoeing, snowboarding, birding, and planning dream trips!