Pat Brown
Contributing writer
With her sights set on entering the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 7, Radford resident Kate Daby is throwing a party July 20 at Sinkland Farms Brewery, and the public is invited.
The event will be a fundraising effort for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
The evening also honors Daby’s sister Anne Kogler of Saltwater, Minnesota, who began coping with childhood diabetes at the age of 14. Kogler is now an award-winning pediatric diabetes nurse.
Calling the evening “Southern Hospitality,” Daby has lined up Blacksburg Band the Howling’ Mudbellies to provide old school blues music for the night. Sinkland has 20 beer taps and food will come from Grill and Till, a food truck focused on a fresh, healthy menu, she said.
Daby has been busy gathering items for a silent auction. Cost for the evening is $15 for a single ticket or $20 for couples.
Profits and donations are earmarked for the JDRF, Daby said. Type I diabetes is a life-threatening autoimmune disease in which a person’s pancreas stops producing insulin, an essential hormone. To date there is no cure and no means of prevention, according to the group’s Website.
A seasoned runner, Daby’s participation in Chicago will be her sixth marathon. Fellow Radford resident Janice Chatham is Daby’s running partner. The two women spend much of their spare time training.
By launching the fundraiser, Daby said, “we can use our sport to give back so much more. This way our hobby goes beyond the self.”
Daby ran her first marathon in 2007, though there had been numerous races before that. In high school she ran to train for soccer season, but she jokes that she learned to run fast after she had children.
“The children were napping and their father would be wanting me home once they woke up,” she said.
Daby and Chatham “run around the whole city,” Daby said. “From Forest to Tyler to Dedmon Center to Rock Road. Radford is a great city to train in. In the early morning there’s not a car on the road.”
The runners cover 24 to 28 miles during intensive training and “taper” to 10 to 12 miles closer to race dates. “You want to enter the race on well rested legs,” she explained.
Much of this training takes place before Daby reports to work as Radford University Assistant Director for the Center for Accessibility Services. Her work requires her to find solutions for students who have physical or health needs that make pursuing their education more difficult.
A year ago Daby learned how race sponsors are pumping up the charitable side of racing, but the story has an ironic twist.
Chatham and she were planning to enter the New York City Marathon. Daby got picked through a lottery, but Chatham was not selected. They heard Chatham could still qualify by running for a charity. Chatham had lost a brother to pancreatic cancer, so she decided to run in his honor and raise money for pancreatic cancer research.
Before the marathon date arrived, Daby’s own mother, Gayle Jackson of Blacksburg, had a struggle with pancreatic symptoms that heightened the runners’ determination to raise money for pancreatic research.
“Why wouldn’t we support that research?” said Daby, her voice cracking with emotion. “Both of us were experiencing this.”
Fortunately Daby’s mother was able to have surgery that corrected her symptoms.
“It was scary,” Daby said, but the race “was cathartic.”
Daby said Susan Sink, proprietor of the Sinkland Brewery, has been a great help.
“I just wanted to have a little party,” she said. But Sink advised her, “If we’re going to do this, let’s go big.”
So Daby has been scrambling to make it all happen. For the silent auction she’s collected a rafting trip on the New River, free lodging for a Hokie weekend, vintage furniture, Adirondack chairs, pottery, jewelry, a quilt, a family of four pumpkin patch visit in the fall and a honeymoon night at Sinkland Farms.
Daby speaks admiringly of her sister, Anne Kogler.
“She used her condition to develop her character instead of wallowing in self-pity,” Daby said.
In her home state, Kogler was named the Outstanding Diabetes Nurse Educator of 2017.
She travels to Africa for outreach and educational sharing about juvenile diabetes and has volunteered for more than 26 years at a camp for children and teens that suffer with diabetes.
When she runs for JDRF in Chicago, Daby fully expects that some of the other runners will “actually have diabetes.” Food and water stations along the way will be stocked with medications and special snacks appropriate for these participants, she predicted.
Chatham and Daby raised over $4,000 for pancreatic cancer research with no flashy event. But Daby is not taking any chances. Between now and July 20, Daby is running a different kind of race to be ready for an evening of fun and a bountiful silent auction to honor her sister and promote research into juvenile diabetes.
