Five years ago, T1D dads Dan Connors and Hans ten Cate teamed up with JDRF’s Northern California chapter to create JDRF Game2Give, an initiative to unite video game players and companies in the quest to find cures for type 1 diabetes (T1D).
Since then, JDRF Game2Give has grown beyond our wildest dreams by raising more than $4 million (!!!) for T1D research and advocacy; bringing together hundreds of streamers, fans, and developers with T1D connections; and helping JDRF reach new audiences around the world.
JDRF Game2Give’s leaders and founders accepting the 2023 Living & Giving Impact Award with their kids.
Today we’re celebrating another big milestone: JDRF Game2Give is now Breakthrough T1D Play.
The new name is part of JDRF’s organization-wide rebranding to become Breakthrough T1D. We love this change for a few reasons.
The “J” in JDRF stands for “juvenile,” an outdated way of describing type 1 diabetes. While the onset of T1D often occurs in childhood, today we see diagnosis happening at every age, with a majority of new T1D cases in adults. Not to mention the fact that kids diagnosed with type 1 grow up to be adults with type 1!
Likewise, video games aren’t just for kids. In fact, 76 percent of the game-playing audience are adults. By leaving the “J” behind, our program will be more inclusive and welcoming for everyone.
Sorry, “J.” We’re kicking you out of the band.
The organization now known as Breakthrough T1D has been around for more than fifty years, and this isn’t its first name change. The Juvenile Diabetes Foundation later became the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and then just JDRF. This acronym is familiar to people in the know, but it can be alienating and confusing to people unaware of the history. And while funding research is an important part of what the organization does, that’s far from the whole story.
The new name refers not only to scientific breakthroughs but also to our ability to break through barriers, advance progress, and move the entire T1D community forward. Now Breakthrough T1D can more clearly communicate its global purpose: As we drive toward curing type 1 diabetes, we help make everyday life better for the people who face it.
You can learn more about the name change on the newly launched Breakthrough T1D website and in the video below.
Come play with us!
While video games are still our program’s main focus, changing our name to Breakthrough T1D Play lets us embrace all the ways our community puts the “fun” in fundraising—from playing games, making music, and creating art, to donning a dinosaur onesie, spinning the hot sauce wheel, and taking a pie to the face. If you want to make a difference in the fight against T1D and have a great time doing it, we want you in our community, no matter what “play” means to you.
We’re in the process of updating our website, streaming toolkit, and other resources to reflect our new identity. Please excuse our mess in the meantime, and drop us a line at play@breakthroughT1D.org if you have questions about the rebrand or notice anything broken during the transition period.
TL; DR: New program name, same great community, onward and upward on our quest to turn type 1 into type none!