(Community Matters 180) Cereal City Rotary's Book to Help Kids Understand Diabetes

We talk with Cassie Scramlin and Conrado Campos from Cereal City Sunrise Rotary about Ben’s Diabetes Journey, a bilingual children’s book designed to help kids understand diabetes with empathy and practical clarity. We share what we’re hearing from third graders, why Rotary treats diabetes prevention as a community mission, and how families and schools can get copies. 

Episode Resources
Cereal City Sunrise Rotary Facebook Page and Website

Email: cerealcitysunriserotary@gmail.com

ABOUT COMMUNITY MATTERS
Former WBCK Morning Show host Richard Piet (2014-2017) returns to host Community Matters, an interview program focused on community leaders and newsmakers in and around Battle Creek. Community Matters is heard Saturdays, 8:00 AM Eastern on WBCK-FM (95.3) and anytime at battlecreekpodcast.com.

Community Matters is sponsored by Lakeview Ford Lincoln and produced by Livemic Communications.

Transcript

Welcome And How To Listen

Richard Piet 0:02

Thank you for being with us on Community Matters. Richard Pyot here, Lakeview Ford, presenting sponsor of this program. You hear Saturdays at 95.3, or at Battle CreekPodcast.com, or maybe you went to your favorite podcast directory and typed in Community Matters Calhoun County. You can do that now and subscribe, and then you'll get a little alert when these episodes come available.

Why A Diabetes Children’s Book

Richard Piet 0:29

Ever thought about writing a book? Some people say that to folks who seem like they have stories to tell, right? You should write a book. Well, you know what? The Rotary Club in Battle Creek did that. It's called Ben's Diabetes Journey. It is a children's book, essentially, helping them understand about diabetes. Cassie Scramlin is here along with Conrado Campos to talk about Ben's Diabetes Journey, the book. Welcome to you both.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

Welcome. It's good to be here. Welcome, Richard. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

Richard Piet 1:08

This is an important piece of information, isn't it? The idea that young people could learn from this. We certainly know, or we have an idea anyway. If you don't know, we're going to tell you. Diabetes is a serious uh situation, a serious ailment, and you can do some things to reduce your chances of heading in the diabetes direction. And so this is important subject matter. But talk to us about where this came from and why you did it.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

As you know, diabetes, there is no cure yet for diabetes. However, it can be managed. We came out with the idea to write a book that could communicate to kids about diabetes. And one of our friends, he knows a local writer. Her name is Jessica Zimmerman. And she did a great job. She met with us. And based on some of the, you know, she put together this book really based on true stories from kids that they had diabetes and also some adults that they were diabetes, they had diabetes when they, you know, when they were kids. And based on that input, this book came alive, you know, came a reality of Ben's diabetes journey.

Richard Piet 2:34

I started this by saying you should write a book, uh, you've got a book in you. Sometimes we don't have a book in us, but we have an idea, and somebody else has the capability of writing it. And you just illustrated that. What a great group. It only took four people to figure out okay, here's our book, here's the angle we want, and and I think we know who the writer is. So that's pretty good.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yes, it was it it came along beautifully in the process, and then it was what to do with the book once it got printed.

School Visits And Kids’ Reactions

Richard Piet 3:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

So March is reading month. So we are now in schools reading it to third graders, and they get to take a copy home with them.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Wow. Yeah, we already started in uh in the schools here in Barrow Creek. We already are for the most part, we already cover the Lakeview elementary schools, Harper Creek, St. Joseph, Calhoun Christian, and then we already have in the schedule uh other schools coming up in April, the Barrow Creek Public Schools, and as well, we're getting in contact with uh other elementary schools within the Calhoun County. That is our goal to go to all the Calhoun County elementary schools, third graders.

Richard Piet 3:52

Third graders, okay, and you've done some of that already, you've been visited already, right? So, what was the reaction when when you talk to these young people about this? What are some of the responses you get or the expressions on their face? What what do you see?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

You know, it has been incredible to see, surprisingly in some case in some times, that probably 30% or sometimes up to 50% of the classrooms, they know somebody that has diabetes, either a friend or one relative, or maybe one of their parents that have diabetes. And it has been the book has been very well received. You know, the kids they pay a lot of attention, they ask very good questions, and also they love the idea that the book is bilingual, that we have, you know, one side is in in English, and then in the other side is in Spanish. And they enjoy it in some of the schools, they are taking Spanish classes, and they these little children they asked to read, you know, we can read to them some of the pages in Spanish. Uh-huh.

Richard Piet 5:11

That's incredible. In fact, I was sitting here thinking about that as you were describing this, the notion that many of us adults are diabetic, or we know someone who is. I wouldn't have imagined that you would have said that third graders already know, but boy, that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? Young people are already aware of it and know someone in many cases who may be diabetic. It's out there, and even young people are aware of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yes, it is surprising. In one of the classrooms, one of the children has a brother who is diabetic, or a parent, or an aunt, or you know, some family member of some sort.

Richard Piet 5:56

Yeah. So they are living it by extension.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yes.

Richard Piet 6:00

And then we presume that in many or all of those cases, those relatives or folks close to them who are diabetic are now teaching them firsthand how to be maybe on Ben's journey here, right? To to understand this and proceed accordingly, so they might be able to reduce their risk of it.

Ben’s Story And Diabetes Tools

Richard Piet 6:22

Talk about the story a little bit. Give us a sense for what Ben's journey is.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah, Ben is you know, he's a little boy that you know he goes to school and then he starts to feel and he doesn't feel well, and he needs to go to see the doctor to go to the hospital. And it's when he finds out that he has diabetes, and then he needs to be packing himself a lot on his finger to be able to take a blood sample to measure the amount of glucose in his blood. And eventually, Ben gets a glucose monitoring device that will help him to control the amount of insulin and the glucose in his blood. And his friends in the school are able to understand what he's going through and help him along the journey on how to what he can eat, what he can do. And at the end, you know, it's where we're trying to foster this empathy and understanding from other kids towards Ben. And I think at the end, you know, it's like, you know, to for Ben to learn that he can be able to manage the diabetes and be, you know, try to be like the other boys, but being aware at the same time that he needs to take care of himself.

Richard Piet 7:46

And uh you talk about practical things that you need to do as a person with diabetes, like monitoring your glucose levels. That poking your finger thing certainly was for many people a regular occurrence. You can imagine having to draw blood, a little drop of it, in order to measure the glucose level. These glucose monitors now that you can wear are uh tremendous to avoid that. And you can put them on you and look at the status on your phone at any time. It's just a great advancement. So these things are talked about. It's a practical picture that's drawn, isn't it? From this particular author. She captured what you wanted, I presume.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

Yes, and also what we have is in the book, after we read the book, we have an activity about, you know, for the kids is well, what did you learn about diabetes from this story? How did this story make you feel? And what is something that you would like to do now going forward, to do something different?

SPEAKER_01 8:50

Well, and even throughout the book, there's little interactive questions. This one says, How do you think you would feel if you had diabetes like Ben? So we can get classroom participation, reading the page and asking the question.

Richard Piet 9:05

So when you approached schools, and when you have been approaching schools about this, I presume the reception is very positive. I would imagine they would say, Come on down, tell us about it, tell our kids about it.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Yeah, the reception has been extremely well. I have been very impressed. As soon as I start describing to them the objective of the book and what is what we're trying to do, is immediately I get within a day or two, I get a response about you know how many students they have, what which date, what time it will work for some of these, you know, for the schools. And I have been very impressed about the reception of the book by the principals and the people in the schools.

Rotary’s Prevention Mission And Big Stats

Richard Piet 9:55

Talk about why this was important to Rotary. There is a understanding about Rotary and uh as a service club in the past, and this was Rotary International, that took polio on as a project of sorts to try and help eradicate it. Of course, that's been done. So this is similar to that, isn't it? It's a modern day approach to tackling another pervasive health issue.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

At Serial City Sunrise Rotary, we feel like diabetes is the next polio that we need to tackle.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah, you think about it here in the US, just to give an idea, it's about 40 million people with diabetes. This according to the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, and the American Diabetic Association, in which about, you know, it's 12% of the population. And if you go back to the state of Michigan, it's another 1.2 million people, which is about 12%. And in the Calhoun County, we are talking about 16% people with diabetes. But one of the things that is very alarming to me was that in the US, we have about between 97 to 115 million people that have pre-diabetes. That means one in every one of every three American adults are prediabetic. And I think it's where you know we right now it's better to prevent diabetes, because once you get diabetes, there is no cure yet, but you can prevent. And that one you you can do to you know, healthy eating habits and by exercising.

Richard Piet 11:48

Yeah, the the pre-diabetic designation, I think, has probably helped to create a warning, hasn't it? Uh to alert folks, you're on your way, you can start changing things now and try to avoid the eventuality. But those are some startling statistics. 16% of folks in Calhoun County are diabetic. That's a tremendous number. So the Serial City Sunrise Rotary has taken upon itself to do this. Is this a wider rotary objective, or are you blazing the trail here?

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I think we're blazing the trail here.

Richard Piet 12:26

Yeah, I had a feeling you'd say that. So it's getting attention, I

Buying The Book And Next Steps

Richard Piet 12:29

presume.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Yes, we have the books for sale. I sold two books today because the person I sold them to has two kids who have grandchildren, and her husband is diabetic. So she wants to be able to read the books and give them to her son and her daughter so that the grandkids will learn about diabetes.

Richard Piet 12:49

The um education doesn't necessarily have to happen in a classroom. These are available for individuals to purchase if they want to. Yes. And go about it however they want to. Read them to their own children or grandchildren, or uh help someone else do the same. There could be some teachers listening to this who might not be in the Battle Creek area school districts who say, Boy, I want that too. Should they reach out to you? Absolutely. Yeah, you don't have to be in Battle Creek for this to happen.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

No, and we already got um, we're getting some requests from some other elementary schools that they don't have like a third graders, but they want to, you know, to even to go to the first grader, you know, that they are interested in acquiring the book. Wow. That tells me that the book is being received very well.

Richard Piet 13:43

So, what do you hope to have happen here? These books get sold, they start to be circulated, and you're already uh seeing the response, of course, that has begun to happen six months from now, a year from now. Where do you see this going?

SPEAKER_00 14:00

This is like a self-funding project. The idea is with the books that we sell this year, that we can be able to have the funding for next year's book to go back to the schools to the third graders next. And again, that we can do all the third graders' elementary schools in Calhoun County.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

The book was written at a third grade level, so it's just a beautiful book. It reads very easily.

Richard Piet 14:27

Yeah, which is important if we want the message to get across. Yeah. So some other rotary members might be hearing this and saying, I wonder if we can do that too. What's your thought? Do you want to challenge them? Do you want to sell them some books? What do you want to do here?

SPEAKER_01 14:44

Well, I am going to be reaching out to the local rotary clubs within our district and doing, we'll be doing a presentation on this book. And if they want to purchase books, they can purchase books. Absolutely. Our district starts around like Marshall, Hastings, Delton, the downtown club. Um, there is a two Charlatte clubs, there's a Lansing Club, and then it goes west. So I'll be reaching out. We do have a also have a district conference that I'll be carrying the books to to kind of promote the book there. It's a book that's going to help any child anywhere.

Richard Piet 15:22

Yeah, that's the truth.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

And maybe help them understand why their friend is not feeling so well or why their friend has a pump.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

And also, we are right now in the early phases of a project with a rotary club in Leon, Mexico.

Richard Piet 15:36

Oh my.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

That is also they are working on a on a project for kids with Taiwan diabetes. And I think uh they are very excited about this book because that could be since the book was written in Spanish, they can, you know, they can be able to buy the book from us to share the book with the club there and and the people that they are working on.

Richard Piet 16:00

Again, there's a portion of it in English, and then it's a Spanish portion, both in the same book. Why was that important? Where did you get the inspiration to do that?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

You know, the inspiration is because one of the ethnic groups that has a huge, a very large diabetic population uh is the Hispanic. And that's the reason, you know, we wanted to came with this idea to do both in English and Spanish. And also, as we know, we have a large uh Hispanic population. You know, the kids they can share with, you know, some of their parents or grandparents as well to learn about it.

Richard Piet 16:36

Well, congratulations on uh the success you've had with it so far. Someone's listening to this and wants to know how to get one. Let's tell them how do we get them?

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Well, they can send us a message on our Facebook page, Serial City Sunrise Rotary. They can send us an email, serial city sunrise rotary at gmail.com, or they can go to our website, which is serialcityrotary.org.

Richard Piet 17:02

Okay. And reach out in one of those ways, and you can get a copy for yourself. How many dollars do we need for a copy?

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Mean $10 for a copy.

Richard Piet 17:12

Affordable as well. Love it. All right, keep us posted on how things go. Absolutely. Cassie Scramlin, Conrado Campos, Serial City Sunrise Rotary in Battle Creek. The book is called Ben's Diabetes Journey. Ask them about it. We'll be back on Community Matters.