Belated Monday Night Meal

Bootleggers got decked out in American Diabetes Association colors.

A few weekends ago I went home for a friend’s wedding. While I was there my family hosted a fundraiser dinner at a local restaurant called Bootleggers. The owner of the restaurant, Ty Rowe, knows my mom because she had his kids in her kindergarten class and he opened the restaurant especially for this event and catered the entire meal.

The reason behind this fundraiser is to raise awareness and funds for the American Diabetes Association. I have been participating in this walk for the past 4 years (although last year’s walk was cancelled because of the San Diego wildfires) and my parents have traveled down to walk with me. As a family, we have raised close to $12,000 in those four years.

Why do we walk? In June 1999, the summer before my senior year of high school, I was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I was rushed to the hospital when my blood sugar was found to be 560 mg/dl (normal range between 70-140 mg/dl) and was thrown into a life of blood sugar testing, insulin shots and carb counting. Over the past nine years I have learned a lot about this disease and the millions of people it affects. I have also learned a great deal about myself and my ability to overcome this disease. At the same time, however, I still worry about the long-term affects this disease could have on my body and fear the possible side effects, such as kidney failure, amputation, blindness and heart disease. So I now take it upon myself to be proactive and educate when I can and help raise funds that will go toward searching for a cure. To learn more about the walk or to make a donation of your own visit http://main.diabetes.org/goto/lesliehackett or to learn more about diabetes and whether you’re at risk for the disease, visit http://diabetes.org/

My family (from left) my mom Barbara, my grandma Elinor and my dad Steve.

To be excused to get dinner, tables had to answer diabetes trivia questions provided by me.

With that said, let’s get to the Monday Night Meal aspect of this blog. Ty made a fantastic meal. Appetizers included stuffed olives and mozzarella balls, which were paired with a wine tasting put on by a local wine shop. Dinner was Caesar salad; a vegetarian pasta option with pesto, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes; a meat pasta option with Italian sausage, meatballs and a tomato sauce; and garlic bread. The evening was topped off by a new twist on tiramisu, which was served in individual cups as a pudding-type mixture with lady fingers on the side. Everything was fantastic.

The Italian buffet provided by Bootleggers owner Ty Rowe included Caesar salad, two pasta options and garlic bread.

By the end of the night, with the meal costs, raffle money and a silent auction, we raised about $3,500! My parents worked extremely hard on this event and pounded the pavement to collect great prizes for the raffle and silent auction. The community of Auburn really stepped up to help support our family and we are very thankful for that. With this fundraiser, this year we are on target to meet our team goal of $5,000 for the first time since I started walking in this event. We are set to Step Out for Diabetes on Saturday, October 25.