About Children's Congress '07
Every two years, JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore and over a hundred children with type 1 diabetes gather in Washington, D. C. to meet face-to-face with some of the top decision-makers in the U.S. government. The children, ages 4 to 17, represent all 50 states and the District of Columbia. As participants in JDRF's Children's Congress, they have a unique and empowering opportunity to help Members of Congress understand what life with type 1 diabetes is like and why research to find the cure for diabetes and its complications is so critical.
Children's Congress will take place on June 17-20, 2007 in Washington, D.C.
Read an introduction from JDRF International Chairman Mary Tyler Moore.
Read ChairMom Pam Edmonds' welcome letter.
Event History
The JDRF Children's Congress program was inspired by a boy from Massachusetts named Tommy Solo when he was 8 years old. He heard some adult JDRF volunteers talking about going to Washington, D.C., to talk to Congress and thought it would be great if kids could go, too, because no one knows better what it's like to live with type 1 diabetes than kids who have it.
The group of volunteers thought it was a brilliant idea and quickly got to work developing the event, which was first held in 1999. Since then, four successful Children's Congresses have occurred, one every other year (1999, 2001, 2003, and 2005). Media coverage of the event-an integral key to its success-has grown with the event's sophistication. In 2005, it received coverage on 45 major television news networks and in 210 major daily newspapers, including, but not limited to the New York Times, Washington Times, USA Today and others.
