6-year-old boy with diabetes sells pumpkins to get a service dog

Ian Unger, a 6-year-old with type 1 diabetes began his first year of school but was not allowed to ride the school bus, so the boy took matters into his own hands.

From Sand Lake, Michigan, little Ian had always been a happy child and eager to help others. First diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 4 years old, he took it well and saw it as just the way things are and doing what needs to be done.

At the start of school officials told Ian he could not ride the school bus without the presence of an adult and wanting to be as much as other children his own age he came up with a solution.

Ian wanted a service dog, but they are expensive.

Along with training and other costs, it would be around $25,000. The Christensen family discussed ways in which they could come up with the money, thinking it would take years before they could raise enough to get Ian the help he needed.

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Katrina Christensen, Ian’s mum said:

“He started wanting to do a lemonade stand, anything to raise the money. Then lemonade season was getting to be over, so we told Ian he could have the family’s pumpkin patch this year. He said, ‘I’m gonna sell pumpkins and I’m gonna get my dog!’ “

When a stranger wrote about Ian’s efforts selling pumpkins business took off. Katrina beamed as she said:

"He’s quite the little salesman. We had hundreds of people in the driveway. He helped every single person pick out the right pumpkin. It was the coolest thing to see.”

By this time Ian’s story caught attention all over social media and when Katrina decided to set up a fundraiser on Facebook to raise money for Ian’s service dog the response was amazing.

In less than a week they raised $24,890. Pumpkin sales came to a little over $1,000 and the lemonade sales came roughly to around $110.

This meant that Ian would get his service dog so much sooner than expected through the help of others. He will receive his very own service dog in about 10 months after it’s been through training.

In the spirit of helping other children with type 1 diabetes, Delta Tau Delta fraternity from North Dakota State University’s fundraiser for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation), Deltaroni, came together and sold homemade Mac N’ Cheese on October 22 to help raise funds for the foundation.

Philanthropy chair, Logan Jaskowiak had the following to say during the event held at the Newman Center at NDSU:

“A charity that people don’t really give back to a whole ton and I feel like we do a great job every year at our event. We have a room filled with people and hopefully, it stays that way all night. It’s lovely it’s even like a brotherhood even in here because we’re all having fun together and were just raising money for a great cause.”

Physicians are also making patients aware of dangers linked to a class of medications called SGLT2 inhibitors. The popular Diabetes drug got declared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on August 29 to cause severe genital infection. It has caused one death and 11 people to be hospitalized and doctors have advised patients to stop using the drug.