HPHS Junior Creates Diabetes Peer Support Group For Kids

Imagine being a six-year old kid who just found out that every day for the rest of your life you need to poke your finger to draw blood six to ten times a day to check your blood sugar levels. That you need five or more insulin injections a day to stay alive. That you might feel like you are going to pass out with no warning in the middle of a soccer game or a dance recital or a test at school. This is what having Type 1 diabetes is like for millions of kids, many of whom live in the northern suburbs.

Highland Park’s Charlie Rotering knows the frustration and isolation of having this chronic disease; he’s had it since he was two years old. To help other kids with day to day living with diabetes, he started a peer support group: Chicago Kids for a Cure.

“I really don’t remember not having diabetes,” says Rotering, a junior and varsity member of the football team. “But every day is a careful balancing act between the food I eat, the amount of insulin I take and my activity level.”

Rotering was a junior counselor at Banner Day Camp for two summers and worked with young campers who also had diabetes. “I understood the challenges they faced, being little, wanting to play or swim, but needing to make sure that their diabetes was under control so they would be safe. I started Chicago Kids for a Cure so they would have a group of friends who totally understood the experience of having diabetes as a kid.”

Kids for a Cure first met last year as a group walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Ron Santo Walk for a Cure. Last month they had lunch at Michael’s Chicago Style Red Hots in Highland Park and they are having their next meeting at , 617 Central Ave., Highland Park on Sunday, December 11 from 2:30 – 3:30.

“We have kids involved ranging in age from 6 to 17. Everyone agrees that it really helps to know other people with diabetes. We talk about school, camp, overnighters, sports, going through the airport with diabetic supplies, explaining diabetes to your friends, different technologies for dealing with diabetes. It helps to have people who speak the same language and have the same concerns,” said Rotering.

For more information about Chicago Kids for a Cure, contact Charlie Rotering at crotering@live.com, or find Chicago Kids for a Cure on Facebook. For more information about Type 1 diabetes, go to www.JDRFIllinois.org.