Welcome to the Team Kenny webpage!  We are dedicated to finding a cure for Type I Diabetes and fundraising for all suffering from Diabetes.  We are well underway with our 2011 fundraising, having raised $750 thus far toward our goal of $2,500.  We had a great 2010 fundraising campaign, raising nearly $4,500 for ADA, but that was last year.  Kenny is no longer the Youth Ambassador for the SE Michigan Tour de Cure, but we still need to find a cure for diabetes! 



See the link below to make a contribution to ADA and help us find a cure!

http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/MichiganArea?team_id=491335&pg=team&fr_id=7589

FYI - Team Kenny is not a non-profit; we are simply a team that raises funds, primarily for the American Diabetes Association, to find cure for diseases.  For obvious reasons, our focus is on Type 1 Diabetes.


NEWS

AMBASSADORS' RIDE TO FIGHT DIABETES -- NEW TIME & LOCATION  (see below)

NEW -- Check out our video on Youtube - set to "Represent" by Weezer

This year's Tour de Cure Michigan theme is "Rock Our Ride", so what better way to highlight this than with a video of snapshots and videos from last year's Tour set to a song by my favorite band, Weezer? 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSprx-Dr4a4

REVISED -- Come to the Ambassadors' Ride to Fight Diabetes

On Saturday, May 28th, Team Kenny will co-host the second annual Ambassadors' Ride to Fight Diabetes (formerly known as Ride for Kenny).  For a $10 donation ride the scenic Milford Trail and Kensington MetroPark, meet Tour de Cure ambassadors, enjoy refreshments (on us), and get the dust off your bike and the rust off of you!  See the Events page for details.

Note - our first Ambassador's Ride this year (scheduled for May 15) was postponed due to the ridiculous weather - 45 degrees, pouring rain, and 20 MPH winds!  In May!  We can't control the weather, so... new date.


Team Kenny Joins the Michigan Tour de Cure Planning Committee

This year, Team Kenny is not just riding in the Tour de Cure and raising money; we are helping to organize the event.  Ken Skoug joined the Tour Planning Committee and is the co-Chair of the Marketing & Publicity committee.  For the 2011 Tour, we have set a goal of doubling the size of the tour (in riders) and raising significantly more money.  How about $1,000,000?  Okay, $350,000 would be great!

For 2011, the theme is Rock Our Ride!  Chances are, you know someone who has diabetes.  Did you know that 80,000 people will die from diabetes this year - twice as many as from breast cancer?  Diabetes is more than a nuisance; it is a killer and the cause of many health complications, including blindness and amputation!  Please help ADA find a cure for this disease.  A great way to help is to ride a bike in Tour de Cure, raise money and have a rockin' good time on June 11, 2011.

Team Kenny fights MS and Crohn's, too!

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) -   Ironically, fundraising for MS is how Team Kenny got it's start.  In 2005, Ken III elected to revive an old hobby of his and get into cycling, joining the Visteon cycling team to raise money for MS research.  Actually, Ken's sister's mother-in-law had been diagnosed with MS about 6 years earlier, and his brother-in-law had formed at team (Team Roller) to raise money to fight MS, which like diabetes is an auto-immune disorder. 

So, Ken began cycling in 2005 and completed his first MS ride in July of that year.  He would complete MS rides in 2006, 2007, and 2008 before Kenny would be diagnosed with diabetes.  So while diabetes is now Team Kenny's main fundraising goal, MS remains on our list, too. 

Ken has now completed 3 Mid-Michigan MS rides, 2 West Michigan MS rides, and 3 City-to-Shore (New Jersey) MS rides, raising more than $2,000 to fight MS. 

Crohn's - Ken also participated in a Crohn's fundaising ride this year, the Paul Fried ride at Kensington Metro Park.  Team Kenny contributed $50 at this event. 



No - we don't mean this kind of riding! 


American Diabetes Association Tour de Cure 2011

Team Kenny will return to action on June 11, 2011 for the Tour de Cure.  Our fundraising goal for 2011 will be lower, as Kenny has completed his service as Youth Ambassador, but we are still targeting $2,500.  Links for contributing will be posted soon!

See pictures from this past year's (2010) Tour de Cure event on our Photos page.  


Kenny is now in middle school, a big change from elementary school.  Diabetes is hard to manage, but he is now armed with an Animas One Touch Ping insulin pump, and about seven months' experience with it.  To those unfamiliar with diabetes, managing blood glucose requires counting carbohydrates at every meal and taking insulin to enable cells to process the glucose.  This is not easy!
 



May 2, 2010 - Breaking News!  Kenny has been recognized by Wayne County Commissioner Laura Cox for his role as Youth Ambassador for Tour de Cure!  The picture above shows the Resolution honoring his efforts.  Kenny is also featured in an exhibit at the Plymouth Library focused on the life of diabetics and what each day is like.  Thank you Ms. Cox for highlighting Kenny and the fight against this chronic disease.


April 14, 2010 - Thanks for making the first "Ride for Kenny" a success!  We had 24 riders out there, raising more than $250 for ADA.  We also were featured in the Plymouth Observer newspaper.  All told, we have raised nearly $500 with the ride and publicity - $500 towards finding a cure for diabetes, and helping those afflicted with this disease.  THANK YOU!



2010 YOUTH AMBASSADOR

Kenny was the Youth Ambassador for the 2010 Brighton Tour de Cure!  We were excited and honored for him to have this responsibility.  As Youth Ambassador, he promoted understanding about diabetes, spoke at events and worked to raise awareness of what diabetes is, and what it does to the body. 

Kenny was diagnosed with Type I diabetes in 2008.  While on vacation in Chincoteague Island Virginia, he became very sick and was eventually diagnosed with Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA).  He was flown by life flight helicopter to Children's Hospital in Washington D.C.  Our lives changed dramatically that day.  Since then, we have heard from many families with similar stories of children becoming extremely ill, even going into coma, and receiving this diagnosis.  With your help, this experience can become a thing of the past!

Help Kenny find a cure for Diabetes and help the millions of people afflicted with this disease!  To sponsor Team Kenny, click on the link below (or paste it in your browser's address line), which will take you to our Team Kenny ADA Tour de Cure Page.


http://main.diabetes.org/site/TR/TourdeCure/MichiganArea?team_id=491335&pg=team&fr_id=7589

Note - to sponsor a specific rider, scroll to the bottom of the above-listed page.  All Team Kenny riders are listed; clicking on a rider's name will take you to that person's individual page, where you can directly contribute to their efforts.  


Fundraising Update
We raised about $4,420 in the 2010 fundaising year.  For 2011, our goal is $2,500.  Please help us make it happen!