The Mt. Laurel Sun
On June 11, the students and staff of Springville Elementary School took to the street to raise money as well as awareness for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund.
This was the fourth year that Springville has done a walk but the first that the entire school walked together.
“In years past, each class walked at different times throughout the day as their schedule allowed, but this year, we felt it would be much more powerful if we walked as a whole,” Cece Spehalski said.
Spehalski, the nurse at Springville, is responsible for putting on the event.
She first got the idea to support JDRF from Hartford School, which has been hosting walks for five years. Hartford’s walk was scheduled for June 13.
“Type 1 Diabetes affects a number of students in both our school and the district, so we’ve felt strongly about partnering with JDRF,” Spehalski said.
JDRF is the leading global organization funding Type 1 Diabetes research. As the largest charitable supporter of T1D research, JDRF is currently sponsoring $530 million in scientific research in 17 countries. In 2012 alone, JDRF provided more than $110 million to T1D research.
“JDRF mentioned that a good portion of their donations comes from events that schools host or sponsor,” Spehalski said. “More than 70 schools in New Jersey alone host or participate in walks.”
Springville Elementary School has 460 students ranging from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade. Each child was given an envelope to collect donations or sponsors for the walk. A website specifically for Springville’s walk was also created to allow relatives who may not live locally to donate.
Two weeks prior to the walk, a representative from JDRF came and gave students a presentation on what the organization does and how the children could help. Paired with a DVD viewing, the assembly went a long way in showing the students what they were walking for.
“It did a great job of educating our kids on the risk of T1D and what they can do to help prevent it,” Spehalski said.
The walk taking place at all was threatened up until the morning due to the historically wet spring the region has experienced.
“We definitely lucked out with the weather,” Spehalski said. “We were nervous after it down poured all day on Monday, and the forecast for Tuesday initially wasn’t much better.”
But partly sunny skies and 80-degree temperatures lent themselves to the walk being a big success. At the time The Sun went to print, Springville had raised more than $3,200.
“Our kids were excited about the opportunity to help and they worked hard to make the event a success,” Spehalski said.
