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Odessa youngster meets Obama during diabetes event

Tampa Tribune photo by JAY NOLAN

In April, Taylor Moseley, 10, left, Jacob Rivers, 11, and Ashkon Chamani, 11, walked with others at Hammond Elementary to help raise money for diabetes. This week Rivers is in Washington, D.C., taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Children's Congress.

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By COURTNEY CAIRNS PASTOR | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 24, 2009

TAMPA - An Odessa 11-year-old started his week with actors, singers and athletes and today will lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill. But the highlight came on Tuesday with one presidential handshake.

Jacob Rivers is one of 152 student delegates from the United States and five other countries selected to attend the Children's Congress in Washington, D.C., this week. The program, which the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation started a decade ago, raises awareness of Type 1 diabetes.

"It's a unique opportunity children have to meet with their leaders," said Jillian Lubarsky, a foundation spokeswoman.

Though the participants, ages 4 to 17, are too young to vote, the congress gives them access to important meetings and a chance to share experiences with diabetes and push for more funding for research, Lubarsky said.

The children also hear from celebrities, who this year include Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers, Sugar Ray Leonard and Mary Tyler Moore. It's nice for the students to see you can be an actor, singer, activist or athlete and be touched by diabetes, Lubarsky said.

More than 1,500 children applied to attend. Jacob, who will be in sixth grade at Walker Middle and was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 4, had to fill out an application and write a letter to Congressman Gus Bilirakis to qualify. Six other children from Florida, ranging from elementary to high school students, also are attending.

Jacob's parents, Tim and Dori Rivers, are active in the Tampa Bay chapter of the juvenile diabetes foundation and accompanied him to Washington, taking turns as chaperone.

"We've been looking forward to this for so long, it's hard to believe we're here," Dori Rivers said from Washington.

Children's Congress kicked off with a banquet on Monday. The students expected to convene on Capitol Hill Tuesday and sing "Promise to Remember Me," a song about the conference's theme but learned instead they had a last-minute addition to their schedule – a meeting with President Barack Obama.

Parents could not attend but watched a video afterward, Dori Rivers said. Jacob got to shake Obama's hand.

"It was really cool that Jake got to do that," she said.

From there, the delegates attended a luncheon where Jacob met Sugar Ray Leonard. They heard from a panel of musicians, doctors and athletes about how diabetes has affected them, and Jacob was selected to ask a question. His mother said he planned to ask Minnesota Vikings player Jared Allen, who is not diabetic, about his fundraising walk team, the "Marching Mullets." Jacob organized a walk and fundraiser at Hammond in April. He loves sports and plays baseball with Keystone Little League. He has worn an insulin pump since kindergarten and monitors his blood sugar, taking breaks from sports when he needs to if he gets light-headed or cannot focus.

Today, the group is sitting in on testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Moore, Jonas and Leonard are testifying, as well as three student delegates and a mother who has four children with diabetes, Lubarsky said.

Later the children will split and meet with their local senators and representatives.

The congress started in 1999 and has met every other year. Updates from the event this year are available today on Twitter at http://twitter.com/JDRFAdvocacy and on a Children's Congress blog at http://cc.jdrf.org/blog-09/.

Reporter Courtney Cairns Pastor can be reached at (727) 451-2343.

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