Businesses fighting juvenile diabetes

The numbers seem staggering - each year over 15,000 children are diagnosed with diabetes in the United States - 40 per day - according to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
“[And] while insulin allows a person to stay alive, it does not cure diabetes nor does it prevent its eventual and devastating effects: kidney failure, blindness, nerve damage, amputations, heart attack and stroke,” according to the JDRF web site.
Though most might think there is nothing that can be done in light of these statistics, two Howard Beach businesses are determined to help in the fight against juvenile diabetes.
Those who purchase their groceries and Italian specialties in RagTime may have noticed paper sneakers near the register.
Those sneakers, at a minimum of $1 apiece, will help “to raise money for research,” according to RagTime owner Angelo Gurino, whose own 10-year-old nephew was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes about two weeks ago.
“It’s a hard process to adjust to,” he said, noting that his goal is to raise $10,000 for the JDRF by Sunday, October 26, the day of the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
So far, Gurino said, he has raised $3,000.
“It [JDRF] is a great organization,” he said. “Ninety seven percent of the monies raised go to research.”
Though this is his first year selling the sneakers, Gurino said he has been involved with the JDRF for three or four years. His friend, Joe Mure, President of the Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island Chapter of the JDRF, Gurino said, was his inspiration. Both Mure and his son have diabetes.
Last year, Gurino said, his business, along with Lenny’s Clam Bar, raised $50,000 for the cause.
Joe Decandia is the owner of Lenny’s Clam Bar and President of the International Society of SS. Cosma and Damiano.
“We [the organization] usually give money to foundations that [combat] childhood illnesses,” he explained. In the past, the Society has contributed to the Ronald McDonald House, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, among others, he explained.
He himself will be walking on October 26, and is currently organizing a Howard Beach walk for juvenile diabetes to be held in May of 2009.
In addition, there will be a comedy night fundraiser for the JDRF and St. Francis Hospital on Friday, October 3 at Roma View. The cost is $60 per person for dinner and the show.
“If you have healthy kids and are fortunate, why not give back,” he said.
JDRF sneakers can be purchased at RagTime, 157-48 Cross Bay Boulevard, 718-845-4582; or at Lenny’s Clam Bar, 161-03 Cross Bay Boulevard, 718-845-5100.
To learn more about the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, call 212-689-2860. Registration is at 8:30 a.m., walk begins at 10.