Children with Diabetes at Disney World

The Pelikan Sun is available only in Australia so far, but it’s coming to the U.S. soon. In fact, this is sort of a coming out party for the device. Judging from comments from parents and children as they first used the device without feeling the pain of an old-fashioned lancing device, it is a success. Full disclosure: I wrote one article under contract to Pelikan Technologies, and the company paid my way here.

I also have a connection with this place, Walt Disney World Resort, often referred to as simply Walt Disney World or Disney World, just outside of Orlando. Twice the size of the island of Manhattan, it’s the largest theme park resort in the world. We are at one of the hotels, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, which has about 2,000 rooms and suites, spread out over 126 acres.

Not only have I never been in the state of Florida before, I have also never been to a Disney resort before. Even though I grew up in Southern California, close to Disneyland in Anaheim, it didn’t exist until 1955, when I was already away at college.

But I did know Walt Disney. About 1950 my parents took my little sister and me to his house in Palm Springs for lunch. I always remembered how nice he was to such an awkward teenager that I was. And I still remember how his two daughters, Diane and Sharon, who were also there for lunch were so snotty. Of course, since they grew up to be multimillionaires, they probably felt justified to be unpleasant to the unsophisticated son of school teachers.

Walt Disney was probably the most famous person I ever met, except for Louis Armstrong a few years later. But Walt, as he encouraged me to call him, wasn’t as famous then as he later became, especially when Disney World opened in 1971, a few years after he died.

It’s hard for me to imagine a more magical place for children with diabetes to meet. When I went to Chicago a couple of weeks ago for the annual American Diabetes Association scientific sessions, I thought the convention and the city was so well organized. But it has nothing on this place in terms of organization as well as charm and excitement.

Florida in the summer can, of course, be hot and humid. I came prepared for it with Bermuda shorts and polo shirts, but I am inside almost all the time, where it is severely air conditioned. I have had to leave the building for a dose of warm air – air that is so hot and humid that it steamed up my glasses. But it is truly delightful. Especially for children, who seem to thrive here on the excitement.

Here, as Jeff says, kids can be kids. Even special kids who know how to be responsible at an awfully young age.