ECHO Tournament Series

   The Carolina Fusion and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) will be teaming up this year in an effort to help find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes during the 2009 – 2010 season. “Our team will have a lot of focus around creating awareness and raising money to help JDRF find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes this season,” stated coach Jim O’Connor.

   Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating disease that affects millions of people, a large and growing percentage of them children. There are many players today that compete with this illness and there is no doubt that there will be other athletes in the roller hockey community that get diagnosed with the disease this year as well. Jim stated, “We hope to utilize the strong ties and family like atmosphere of the roller hockey community and industry to create awareness of this devastating disease and help raise funds through donations, raffles, and other off rink events this year in an effort to help find a cure.” In a response to the question of why the Fusion team thought this was fitting to take their efforts to the roller hockey world Jim stated, “we believe youth sports is a great foundation for molding great kids. This is a great opportunity to show the many young athletes that compete in our sport that you should never take anything for granted especially your health. It will also create an avenue for them to give something back to millions of people that will benefit from their efforts.”

   One avenue that has been created to ramp up awareness of the JDRF mission is the team’s new 3^rd uniform design that boasts a bright yellow jersey with matching white custom pants. The team’s affiliation with JDRF is called out with the JDRF logo posted on both the jerseys and pants that the team wears from time to time during events. The team had a great opportunity through their new team sponsor Doctors Express (www.doctorsexpress.com) when they found out that Doctors Express rep that they deal with also has a family member stricken with Juvenile Diabetes. When Doctors Express found out what the Carolina Fusion had in mind about teaming up with JDRF they jumped at the chance to help and as a result funded the entire uniform order.

   The Carolina Fusion 97 team started off their campaign this year as they showed up in force to participate in the JDRF “Walk to Cure Diabetes” that took place in Raleigh, NC. Collectively the team rose over $2,000 dollars that will go directly to research to find a cure. Over the last 2 years the team has raised in excess of $5,000 for JDRF.

   Please look for our team at the rink this year and approach anyone of our team members for more information on how you can support our effort. You can visit the Carolina Fusion web site at www.carolinafusion.net to find out more about their efforts behind the JDRF campaign or contact Coach Jim at jim@carolinafusion.net. They will have a dedicated page for JDRF on the web site to keep their friends, family, and fans up to date on all of their plans and how you can join them to help find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.