Best friends and Earl L. Vandermeulen High School freshmen Emma Schoepflin and JiWon Woo raised awareness in their school this year in recognition of World Diabetes Day. The campaign, which is celebrated annually on Nov. 14, is led by the International Diabetes Federation and was created in 1991 in response to the growing concerns about the escalating health threat that diabetes now poses.
“People don’t always understand diabetes and how it affects young people,” said JiWon, who has diabetes. “People often make assumptions about what I can and cannot eat and I wanted to be a part of something that helped to educate others on the subject.”
The two students spent countless hours making gray ribbon pins, the color representing diabetes awareness, and creating fact sheets about diabetes to distribute to their peers. They also held a bake sale to benefit the American Diabetes Association.
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“We learned that diabetes kills more Americans every year than AIDS and breast cancer combined,” said Emma. “That’s something we did not know until we did this research.”
The theme of this year’s campaign, “Diabetes: Protect Our Future,” is one that resonated with the young duo. “It’s important that people our age become more educated on the topic of diabetes to help them lead a healthier lifestyle,” said Emma. “We’ve received positive feedback from our teachers and classmates and will definitely be doing this again next year.”
