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Diabetes education group leader contacts QB

By Lee Rasizer, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 2, 2008 at 9:18 p.m.

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If life is about timing, Kerry Kinnard's is apparently impeccable.

Last month, Kinnard was looking for ways to bolster her organization, Dedicated to Diabetes, which is a Denver- based group committed to education about the disease, especially in children, through the use of multimedia tools.

She noticed the work Jay Cutler's foundation was doing with youths and felt it might be a good fit to get the Broncos quarterback involved.

She met with Cutler's foundation head, Marty Garafalo, about the quarterback's potential role in doing public-service announcements or perhaps voice a character in an animated educational video targeted at schools to raise awareness of the disease.

Only days, or perhaps even hours, later, Cutler would discover he had Type 1 diabetes. The coincidence was amazing - the potential publicity bump for Kinnard's startup company, incalculable, as DedicatedToDiabetes.org is now working hand in hand with the quarterback, given his diagnosis.

"A lot of organizations have been around a long time, and we've been established for less than a year, so it's a great opportunity," said Kinnard, who, like several family members, has Type 1 diabetes. "We're taking a different approach than what's been done before, and it goes along with Jay's objectives, too. So I couldn't be more excited to have him involved."

Kinnard's chief objective is getting the diabetes message into schools, where, she said, there are no national education programs.

One reason Cutler's involvement is so critical is to change misconceptions among those who are somewhat familiar, but aren't experts, on diabetes.

The quarterback is young and was seemingly in great shape. But, in an instant, he now has to monitor his blood- sugar levels for the rest of his life.

"A lot of people think diabetes affects 65-year-olds or the elderly," Kinnard said. "One of my main objectives is to break stereotypes, because it's not true. It affects 4-year-olds to 40-year- olds. Because there's 21 million people we think have diabetes and 7 million undiagnosed. That's 7 million people walking around who have no idea that all it takes is a simple blood test. It's often misdiagnosed as the flu.

"Now I feel people will go, 'Wow, I need to get tested for this,' " she said, referring to the news about Cutler. "And it's a serious thing."

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