Diabetes Camping Association Sends Urgently Needed Meds to Katrina Victims
When Hurricane Katrina drove residents of Louisiana and Mississippi from their homes and forced area pharmacies to close, people dealing with diabetes found themselves without a source for desperately needed medications.
Baton Rouge, La. (PRWEB) September 30, 2005
When Hurricane Katrina drove residents of Louisiana and Mississippi from their homes and forced area pharmacies to close, people dealing with diabetes found themselves without a source for desperately needed medications. Even those who managed to take their insulin with them when they fled were generally not able to keep it refrigerated, rendering it unusable.
A contact with “D-Life,” a public television show for people with diabetes alerted members of the Diabetes Camping Association, a non-profit group that runs camps and educational programs for children with the disease.
The Diabetes Camping Association responded immediately by asking camp directors to donate any unused insulin and other diabetes medical supplies, according to Lorne Abramson, executive director. “Our camps typically get their supply of products plus a little extra through the generosity of the pharmaceutical companies. Whatever is left at the end of the camping season is carefully refrigerated for use next season. But Katrina’s victims had a much more urgent need.”
Reaching into their own pockets to help others seems to come naturally to this group. Most camps in the association function at 110 percent of capacity, due to limited funding. And many camp directors are health professionals who freely donate their time.
The Diabetes Camping Association networks with more than 165 camps in the United States and Canada. These camps responded very quickly, sending large quantities of insulin, carefully packed in coolers, as well as test strips, alcohol swabs, needles and containers for disposing of used needles. The supplies were sent to Pennington Biomedical Research Center, in Baton Rouge, La., which agreed to handle the distribution. FedEx donated the shipping.
“Our mission is to help children who have diabetes to learn to live with it and to have active, full lives,” added Abramson. I think that when our campers learn how we were able to help our neighbors on the Gulf Coast, they are going to be very, very proud.”
This year alone, the Diabetes Camping Association served 34,000 children at its affiliated camps.
For more information about the association and its donations, contact Executive Director Lorne Abramson at (902) 479-0857 or (902) 478-5210 or visit their web site at www. diabetescamps. org
###
