Business at its best - Three heads are better than one
March 1, 2008
The three event co-chairs for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s (JDRF) Georgia chapter
have much in common. They share a passion for finding
a cure, pride in JDRF’s research programs – and have a personal connection to the disease.
Grant Byrd, senior VP and regional director of Wachovia Wealth Management in Atlanta, says
his 9-year-old son William was diagnosed with Type 1 JD the day before he started kindergarten.
Byrd and his wife, Kathy, had been involved with JDRF prior to the diagnosis for several years in
Charlotte, N.C., before moving to Atlanta a year ago. When they began to see early warning signs,
they were able to communicate their concerns to Williams’ pediatrician two years before the actual
diagnosis.
“Our awareness allowed us to handle this better so we weren’t totally caught off guard, as a
lot of families are,” Byrd says.
For Jack Womack, senior VP of CNN U.S., it was his 18-year-old son, Carson, who was diagnosed
when he was 10. “People may be used to seeing adults get by with Type 2 diabetes, but Type 1 is
totally different,” Womack says. “There are kids 8 and 9 years old who are getting five shots a
day. Some parents are up two to three times a night testing blood sugar. It’s a hard disease.”
Steve Riddell, managing partner at Troutman & Sanders’ Atlanta office, is himself a Type
1 diabetic. “I was diagnosed when I was 33 years old so I was a big kid,” Riddell says. “That’s
unusual, as most people are diagnosed as a teenager or younger.”
Byrd, Riddell and Womack are heading the Georgia JDRF’s Hope for a Cure Gala on April 26 at
the Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead. Riddell says the event should net more than $1 million,
part of the millions that JDRF raises in metro Atlanta each year.
The event is JDRF’s largest fundraising event outside the Walk to Cure Diabetes in October,
Byrd says. The gala seeks corporate donations through such activities as a silent auction and the
FundACure campaign.
More than 85 percent of JDRF expenditures directly support research and research-related
education. Womack notes JDRF has 28-30 clinical trials currently in progress, including research at
Emory University. “It’s easier to ask people for their money when it’s being spent well,” Byrd
says.
To learn more, visit www.jdrfgeorgia.org.
– Bobby L. Hickman
Photography by Kerie Cleveland