On Saturday, July 29, several "Children with Diabetes" familes got together in New York for an afternoon cruise. Many of the group had been unable to attend the Orlando 2000 event and were looking forward to meeting other families. The group called the event "NYCorBust."
It all started out because a few East Coast people, specifically a few in the New York/New Jersey Metropolitan area, were a bit bummed because they were not going to be joining the rest of their "parents of childrenwithdiabetes" friends for Orlando2000, an event
sponsored and organized by the Children With Diabetes Foundation in early June.
There had been much banter on the "parents" list about the excitement of meeting up with about 100 families who would be attending the event down at Disney World. Not to be left out, the New Yorkers, including many from New Jersey, Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, that is), and a couple people from France who were not going to be attending the event in Florida decided that it might be a good idea to have a local event. New York City was chosen as it was somewhat central to everyone (not including Judith from Paris) and of course is the most incredible city in the world.
After everyone agreed that someone needed to take charge (then took themselves out of contention) Pam W. finally stepped forward and took control. And she did a wonderful job suggesting things to do, finding out how much everything cost and the feasibility of the events, etc. Once it was agreed upon by the masses of the newly created mailing list "NYCorBust", Pam really got into high gear and took care of just about everything. Without her, we would still be debating whether or not we should just go to the beach.
It was decided that we would meet at the concession stand with the red awning/roof at 9:00-9:15. I know that it was inspiring for me when we drove up to the pier to see the CWD poster that Jude Pernot created set up and a boatload (no pun intended) of people (some in Orlando 2000 shirts) standing and talking and getting to know each other. That is where it started. We were all given name tags that Lauren Lanning had created with the NYCorBust and CWD logos and that was all we needed. It was a bit odd to be staring at people's nametags, but the smiles when people put 2 and 2 together when recognizing the name and e-mail name was just a thing of beauty. The camaraderie that we feel because of the "parents" list was strengthened incredibly once we were able to
place the faces with the e-mail addresses.
Once the cruise was underway, the "getting to know you in person" stage gradually switched to "it's nice that we got together again", though this was the first time most of had met each other. Truly a good day. I doubt that many from the "parents" list heard much from the "tour guide" as we were all "catching up" with each other. The three hour cruise seemed to be over almost as soon as it began, the time flew that fast. An event like this is something that was good for all and will most definitely be done again. I think that for the next one we'll give Pam a break.
I guess that this really only means one thing: See you at Disney 2001!
