Meet Cynthia Ford

Dear Delegates and Parents,

Welcome to Children's Congress 2009.  I am honored and excited to be chairing the sixth Children's Congress with my 16-year-old son, Albert.  It has been a decade since a little boy named Tommy Solo came up with the idea for this event while listening to a group of adults prepare for a meeting with their Members of Congress. He very astutely believed then that Congress should hear from the kids directly about living with type 1 diabetes and why it was important that a cure be found.  In the 10 years since then, Children's Congress has provided the opportunity for hundreds of children and their parents to take the message of finding a cure to Capitol Hill.

Children's Congress is an important gathering for those affected by type 1 diabetes.  Here, we as parents and children can more clearly appreciate and understand the importance of advocating for a cure and the critical role our government must play in helping us reach our goal of finding a cure faster.

As Albert stated in his blog, it is important that we work with our Members of Congress, to inform them about the importance of finding a cure.  Albert and I found visiting with our Members of Congress to be a very powerful and enabling experience.  Who better than those who experience life with diabetes every day to go to Washington and make the very compelling case for the necessity for a cure?  The passion we all feel about this issue only builds when given the amazing opportunity to make our case to the lawmakers in Washington.  Trust me when I tell you that when we all speak with one voice, they will listen!

A perfect example of the results that working together can bring about is our recent success in having a legislative provision known as the Special Diabetes Program extended.  Since December of 2006, Congress has allotted a total of $450 million to the NIH for research specific to type 1 diabetes.

I sincerely look forward to working with each of you over the next several months as we prepare to take our message of a CURE to Capitol Hill!  If you have a question or need additional information about anything, just leave me a comment and I will get back to you!  I look forward to meeting everyone of you.

Thanks!

Cynthia Ford