Author: Josh Medore | Photos courtesy of Diabetes Partnership Mahoning Valley
For years, even before it opened a fund at the Community Foundation, the Diabetes Partnership of the Mahoning Valley has been doing crucial work in connecting people with resources that help them manage and overcome the medical condition.
Leaders, including fund representatives Ed and Marg Hassey, have served on the local ADA committee, operated the health building at the Canfield Fair, supported Midlothian Free Health Clinic and provided ongoing education to people with diabetes, as well as caregivers.
“We’ve learned that the need is always greater than the resources available to help. When we started, we all wondered just how we could make a difference and it wasn’t long at all before we were fully engaged and growing,” the Hasseys say.
To help those efforts, the partnership opened the Jean Rider Scholarship Fund and Diabetes Partnership Mahoning Valley Fund — both with the Community Foundation. Through the Diabetes Partnership Fund, the group awards grants to groups offering educational programs and support for people with diabetes.
“We sincerely hope that as those before us have done, those now and after us will continue to remember those who helped them and in doing so, help others as the work of the DPMV continues,” Ed says. “We’ve all heard for decades now, that a cure is around the corner and that significant advances in medicine and equipment technology continues to narrow the time for a cure. But in the interim, it is people helping people that is the key.”
The scholarship fund — open to college-bound diabetics with outstanding academic accomplishments, community involvement and personal goals – is named for “a pioneer for all diabetics in the Mahoning Valley.”
Marg also names Kay Leonhart as a crucial figure alongside Jean Rider.
“They are two individuals that had great initial influence to many of us who personally interacted with them when our family members were first diagnosed,” Marg says. “In our relationships that started decades ago, and continue to this day, there has never been a time where they didn’t answer every call and concern.”
“The number of people helped and lives saved is immeasurable. Our own diabetic children, grandchildren and relatives are among those most important who inspire us,” she continues. “To see them live productive lives despite the challenges of diabetes, and all the side challenges the accompany diabetes, is often beyond the words that try to explain.”
