The JDRF, a club initiative new to Pascack Hills High School, held its first meeting during the second half of lunch in room 232 on Thursday, March 22. The meeting was simply an interest meeting, where both long and short term goals for the club, including many ideas to help spread awareness, were discussed.

The JDRF club at Pascack Hills is dedicated to and in support of raising awareness for type one diabetes, working alongside the JDRF, which is a charitable organization that aims to help fund type one diabetes research. JDRF stands for “Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation,” although the organization is no longer recognized by that acronym.

Type one diabetes is a chronic condition caused by pancreas failure, which is the organ responsible for providing insulin to help regulate sugar levels in the body. Type one diabetes can be life threatening, and significantly shorten the expected lifespan of a person diagnosed with the disease. According to JDRF’s website, approximately 1.25 million Americans are living with this condition, including about 200,000 youth and more than one million adults. There is no known cure for type one diabetes.

The Pascack Hills chapter of JDRF was formed by Pascack Hills juniors’ Jeremy and Matthew Friedman. They are new students to Pascack Hills, and at their old school, they had a friend whose family has been supporting the JDRF for many years. Their friend started the club at that school, and they were asked to helped spread the message about type one diabetes and giving awareness to the community.

“We said yes [to spreading awareness],” said co-founder Matthew Friedman. “We got involved and we absolutely loved the cause, the charity, and we really enjoyed supporting it. So, when we found out we were coming here, we really wanted to bring it to the Pascack Hills community as well.”

While JDRF is not yet an official Pascack Hills club, they plan to be next year. In order to be considered a school club, they must show consistent interest from the student body for the rest of the year. Once they achieve official club status, they will be able to fundraise through the school and participate in other events.

“For this year, we’re just hoping to raise awareness about the cause and the existence of the club,” said co-founder Jeremy Friedman. “In next year and in future years, we’re hoping to raise a large amount of funds to help find a cure for type one diabetes.”

At this meeting, plans for March 26-29 to be awareness week at Pascack Hills were discussed. On Monday, posters should be up inside the school, displaying facts or information relevant to the new club. The event for Tuesday is to be determined. On Wednesday, students should wear blue to school, since blue is the official color to show support of type one diabetes research. On Thursday, there will be a free-to-enter raffle for a $20 Dunkin Donuts gift card. To enter the raffle, all students have to do is follow @phhsjdrf on Instagram, the new social media account to correspond with the club. The winner will eventually be revealed on the Instagram page. If all goes according to plan, an official email will be sent to Pascack Hills students soon.

“I’m really excited for the JDRF club to take place,” said sophomore Tiffany Georges, who is interested in the club and attended the interest meeting. “I think this club is very inspiring and can really help people. Type one diabetes is something that many people have to live with, and finding the cure for this and fundraising for the cause is really important. I think this club could be really successful.”

The club is also always looking for new members; for anyone who either wants to join or has any additional questions, feel free to email either Matthew Friedman ([email protected]) or Jeremy Friedman ([email protected]).