Back To School Night Part 2....The Event

As I was saying in my Back To School Night Part 1 post (click HERE if you would like to read) our JDRF outreach committee really wanted to have an event for parents that would give them information, support and great tips on raising children with type 1 diabetes.  So as a group we decided what better topic to try and help our fellow D parents then the fearful, agonizing, ticking time bomb.... back to school.

Our first thought was WHO...who would we invite.  Well of course our D parents...check, we had close to 80 people attending our event.  Our next thought was since we are talking about school maybe we should invite the school boards both catholic and public,  who better to hear about the challenges we face daily in the school system.....check, both public and catholic school board administrators were present along with one teacher and her teaching assistant who know they were getting a T1 student this year .   We also decided if we were going to have a slue of D parents all in one place we could extent an invite to some of the pharmaceutical reps.  They were not so much there to hear about back to school however they want our business and quite frankly we needed there business.  They helped with the funding of our event.

First thought part B was WHO was going to speak and what would these individuals be speaking about?  Our first speakers were our diabetic educators and nursing staff from our pediatric diabetic clinic.  They worked side by side us trying to get this event off the ground. They also prepared some examples and billboards for parents to view:

billboard from our diabetic clinic

example of an emergency pack

  We also had two diabetic educators that are involved with going into the schools and teaching school staff and classmates about our T1 kids.  Our D parents were also able to fill our a referral page at our event requesting the diabetic educators enter their son's/daughter's school for Type 1 diabetes education.  Also speaking was a principle who was recently diagnosed Type 1 and a teacher who has a type 1 son.  Both explained ways in which we as parents can open communication with the schools, they gave us tips and things to remember when dealing with the staff to make this school year safe and fun for our children.  Our last speaker was our co-chair of our outreach committee, she spoke to the group about Bill 5.  Bill 5 is a very important topic for our D community.  As I stated in part 1 we have no standardized school polices when it comes to dealing with our type 1 children.  This Bill is looking to change that, it a little rough around the edges and some changes will be made to better suit our D kids but it is a start.  We felt that the D parents in this community  ALL needed to be informed and show their  SUPPORT for Bill 5.

Click HERE to read Bill 5
Click HERE for some information on a writing company to help support Bill 5
Click HERE to view a website committed to helping children with diabetes receive the support they require in schools.

Second thought WHERE, WHEN and HOW much....our event was held at a wonderful banquette hall, with a bar a sort skip and a hop across the hall. Our event was held on August 17th a perfect time for parents to start thinking (worrying) about getting back to school.  We had a wonderful dinner available for all and we charged a low price of $10 at the door for the event.  It work out amazingly!!

OUR EVENT WENT LIKE THIS:

5:45 registration began: we asked all people attending to sign in and leave their contact information.  We also supplied name tags (colour coded with the grade that their T1 child was entering).  During this time people were able to view and speak with the pharmaceutical reps, meet with other D parents and start filling out their diabetic educator referral papers for the school....and of course grab a few drinks :)

6:15 dinner is served and it was delicious!

7:00-8:00 guest speakers spoke.

8:00-9:00 we broke off into groups based on the grade that their T1 children were going into.  We had a diabetic educator and a group moderator within the groups.  Parents were able to discuss their concerns, things that worked for them last school year, share and ask any question they may have had.

We also asked everyone to fill out a survey on how they felt the event went and in return we gave everyone a free back pack filled with wonderful tips, supplies, water bottle and a book donated to us by Bayer....thanks you Bayer!!

goodie bag donated by Bayer

It was a great night and I was so happy to be part of it, stay turned for Back To School Night Part 3....Tips