Killington Mountain School Alpine athlete Marc Hartnett, was diagnosed this year with type 1 diabetes. It didn’t take long for Marc to come to terms with his diagnosis and to make the necessary lifestyle adjustments to accommodate this lifelong condition. After learning about Marc’s diabetes, teammate Crawford Jones mentioned the annual Downhill for Diabetes event at Pico, and Marc’s mother also suggested he participate. Together they set up a fundraiser page and raised $2,120 for the cause. The event, held on Saturday, February 20, raised almost $20,000, and Marc was largest single online donor.
The entire U19 team, boys and girls, along with Coach Jack Bailey and his son and Head of School Tao Smith and his entire family, participated.”It was nice to spend the day with all my friends for a good cause,” Marc shared, “and to see all the support that I have.” Marc explained that this event will help to continue funding research towards a cure for type 1 diabetes. “Just 100 years ago, type 1 diabetes was untreatable and fatal, but nowadays we are on the brink of finding a cure.”
It wouldn’t be a race if we didn’t mention results. Tao was edged out of the fastest time of the day by KMS student-athlete Paul Ferri. Jack Bailey won his age group and Marc’s dad took the over-50 category. Paul, Bobby Ryan and Tommy Shantler were 1, 2 and 3 in their age group as well.
