Hagan Kennedy, 12th grader at TCHS and a longtime 4-H’er, is very passionate about raising awareness of Type 1 Diabetes. Hagan was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes in 9th grade and since then she has been committed to helping raise awareness and raise money to help others who share her diagnosis. This year, Hagan was determined to conduct her diabetes awareness project despite all of the challenges created by COVID-19. For the second year in a row, Hagan reached out to local schools, businesses and community leaders to help support her initiative to raise awareness and money for the cause.
Hagan met with Tattnall County Commissioners at their November meeting where she spoke about her Blue Out Day initiative and why it was important to her. In response, the Commissioners voted to approve November as Diabetes Awareness Month for Tattnall County.
Hagan’s initiative was also strongly supported by local school administrators who offered small fundraisers such as “hat day” and “blue jean day” at their schools. They also encouraged students and teachers to wear blue on November 13th, the day observed by Tattnall County as “Blue Out Day”.
The largest fundraiser for the second annual event was tshirt sales. Hagan and her family designed a custom “Blue Out Day” tshirt to raise funds for the event. A total of over 300 shirts were sold, an increase from the 126 shirts sold last year.
Through a combination of school events, tshirt, sales, and generous donations from several businesses and individuals, this year’s event raised $3,600! The proceeds of the event will be donated to Camp Kudzu and to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (Georgia Chapter).
Hagan and the Kennedy family would like to thank everyone who volunteered their time and\or gave financially to help make this event such a success again this year.
