Indy driver Charlie Kimball tells kids with diabetes to follow their dreams

Via Daily Herald
July 6, 2014

Seven-year-old John Beaudette doesn’t watch car racing on TV, but he was intently coloring a stripe on a model of Indy driver Charlie Kimball’s Verizon series 83 car at Camp Discovery in Glen Ellyn last week.

“I like the race car,” he said.

John was among 51 kids ages 4 to 9 learning how to manage their Type 1 diabetes while having fun at the day camp at HealthTrack Sports Wellness. Kimball, the first race car driver with diabetes to win an IndyCar Series race, was there to help them build the race cars and encourage them with his own story.

“Being able to share my enthusiasm and passion for racing with these kids is very special,” Kimball said. “It reminds them they can do anything — even drive a race car — with diabetes.”

Abby Gits, 6, was at the camp for the second year in a row. She said she liked the people and had learned that, “when you get low (in blood sugar), you should eat or drink something.”

Katie Mihelich of Lombard brought her daughter, Ava, 6, for the second year. After last year’s camp, Ava asked to go on an insulin pump instead of receiving shots, she said.

“It (the camp) made a huge difference,” she said. “One of the first things we did was sign her up for camp.”

Ava’s father, also diabetic, had attended diabetes camp when he was growing up, Mihelich said.

“He knew the camp had such a positive role for him, (and) it would have a positive role for Ava as well,” Mihelich said.

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