Holy Innocents' Students Address Legislators About Type 1 Diabetes

Will Epperson (left) and Hayden Kirk of Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School (HIES) visited the Georgia Capitol on Type 1 Diabetes Day Tuesday, Feb. 23—working as Georgia Senate and House pages in the morning and then addressing the Health and Human Services Committee about life with T1D in the afternoon.

The House of Representatives passed a resolution recognizing Feb. 23 as Type 1 Diabetes Day, and legislators commended those living with the autoimmune disease, which destroys insulin-producing beta cells within the pancreas. There is no known cure for Type 1 Diabetes, which affects some 8,000 children and adults in Georgia alone.

For eight straight years, Holy Innocents’ has been the top—grossing school in the nation to raise money in the JDRF Fall Walk to fight Type 1 Diabetes. The school raised $93,000 in 2015, under the leadership of Epperson, a Holy Innocents’ senior and captain of the 2015 HIES team. Epperson, named a Top 20 Under 20 student in Metro Atlanta this year, has worked relentlessly for years to support JDRF and its fight to help pay for critical research to treat, prevent and cure Type 1 Diabetes.

The House of Representatives’ resolution Tuesday read, in part: “NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES that the members of this body commend those that support persons diagnosed and living with Type 1 Diabetes, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation ... and recognize February 23, 2016, as Type 1 Diabetes Day at the state capitol.”