By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
A near tragedy in her life spurred Lexi Pfannenstiel to start an annual fundraising program in Hays to raise money for research for Type 1 diabetes.
Pfannenstiel, who was diagnosed at 9 with Type I, was working at a local business while she was a student at Fort Hays State University. Her blood sugar dropped dangerously low, which can cause seizure, coma or even death. She tried eating something to bring up her blood sugar, but it didn’t immediately help. She tried to dial 911, but her eyesight was affected and she couldn’t dial the phone.
She asked the customers at the store to help her. As she struggled, she could hear someone in line say, “You can’t be a diabetic. You aren’t old enough to be a diabetic. You don’t look diabetic. Just do your job.”
No one called 911. No one assisted her. The sugar from the food she ate finally kicked in and she was able to call her husband, who came to her aid.
“I told my adviser, ‘Something needs to change. I need to start this change, because this is not OK. That could have easily been a very dangerous situation,” she said. “If I need to communicate to somebody that I need help and then I get accused of lying and they just think I am making excuses, that is not OK.”
Pfannenstiel knew something needed to be done to raise awareness about Type I diabetes not only for her sake, but for all the other sufferers.
In 2014 with the help of a Leadership 310 class, she created Step It Up for the Cure, an annual fundraising effort. Although Pfannenstiel is no longer a student, she continues to work with other students in Leadership 310 as a community sponsor to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and educate the community about diabetes.
Thanks to snow on April 14, you have two opportunities to donate to Step It Up for the Cure this weekend. The Step It Up for the Cure color run/walk has been rescheduled to Saturday morning at NCK-Tech Big Creek campus. You can still register up until race line up which is at 10:45 a.m. Check-in will start at 9 a.m. Participants can choose from a 5K run or 2.5K walk.
Cost is $15 for an individual, $60 for a team of five and $10 for each additional team member more than five.
You can register for the run/walk online by clicking here or at event the day of the race. You can also donate directly to JDRF through the website. There will be a raffle for themed gift baskets Saturday. Raffle tickets can be purchased at the race.
Step It Up for the Cure is also offering an opportunity to make quilt blocks at The Niche Friday during the Spring Art Walk. Cost of quilt blocks is a $5 donation. The blocks will be joined into a quilt that also will be auctioned or raffled as a fundraiser. One-hundred percent of the proceeds will go to JDRF.
Cassidy Griffin, a Leadership 310 student and a senior from Parker, Colorado, said the project was a wake up call. She didn’t realize how difficult living with Type I diabetes could be until one of her classmates described her sister’s experiences.
“She is a freshman here this year, and she has an insulin pump,” she said. “She has to explain to people over and over what it is.”
An insulin pump, which is about the size of a cell phone, delivers insulin via a surgically inserted tube directly to the body. Pfannenstiel said she was so frustrated about how many questions she had about her pump she stopped wearing her’s for a time and went back to giving herself shots.
“People would make comments, ‘You don’t look like a diabetic.’ Well, what is a diabetic supposed to look like? That is not a fair statement. Those are assumptions from a community perspective that very much need to be broken down,” Pfannenstiel said.
Now she sees all the questions as opportunities to inform people about her disease. She was recently talking to a coworker about her diabetes. The coworker said if she had a low blood sugar episode, she would just give Pfannenstiel her insulin. That is the exact opposite of what she would need. She would need to eat or drink something with sugar in it.
Pfannenstiel said more people are becoming informed about diabetes, but the community still has a long way to go. Working with the students has helped.
“With the groups we have worked with over the last three semesters, they have all just been amazing. They have been dedicated and motivated to make a difference,” she said, adding the project also allows the students to learn more about JDRF and diabetes.
Ashley Norton is the other community sponsor on this project. Other students on the team include Taylor Moyer, Freddy Romero and Jasmine Beaulieu.