Charles Ray seeks to raise diabetes awareness.

Not long ago, I heard a story about a young man who was taking an early morning walk along the ocean shore. He saw hundreds and hundreds of starfish that had washed ashore, and started to throw each one back into the ocean. An old fisherman saw the man and wondered what he was up to. He asked the man why he was trying to save the starfish, because the sun would dry most of them of them out before he could throw them into the water. The young man turned to the fisherman and said, "If only save a handful, then I would have made a difference."

A local celeberity look-a-like, Charles Ray, decided five years ago he would make a difference in the lives of the people who have diabetes.

"I thought somebody needs to do this - why not be me!" Ray said.

Charles Ray has a mission, and it would greatly benifit the lives of so many. He wants to raise awarness of diabetes to a national level. "We all know that cancer and AIDS can kill us. But if you conduct a survey and ask people if diabetes could kill them, most people would say no, and that you would stay healthy as long as you take your insulin shots like you are supposed to," Ray said.

"It's a silent killer."

Ray also has a personal reason for his goal. Ray was diagnosed with diabetes in 1979, when he was only17 years old. "I knew that something was wrong because I was tired all of the time, but I kept putting off the docter's visits. Then when found out what was wrong wrong, I was completely devastated," Ray said. "I felt bombarded. It was like I was running in a100-yard dash and there was a brick wall at the 50-yard mark."

For the first several years Ray coped with his illness and tried to maintain his diet. After those years he began to slip and not take care of himself. "When I was 24, I was wearing a size 40 pants; That's when I knew I had to do something about my lifestyle or I was not going to live," Ray said. Now Ray exercises, jogs, and plays basketball several days a week.

Shortly after a country club cook shaved his head, people told him that he looked like the Housten Rockets basketball star Charles Barkley. "I decided that if one more stranger came up to me and said that I looked like Barkley I was going to use the simularity in positive ways. Then I thought that since I looked like Charles Barkley people would listen to what I had to say," Ray said.

Ray began to contact people about his ideas, and they would listen to him briefly then reject his ideas. However, in 1993, Ray had his first chance to speak his mind. He filmed two public service Announcments that were shown throughout Virginia. "I used several disclaimers like 'People someimes mistake me for someone famous' and I'm not the real Sir Charles,' but I knew I had peoples attention for 30 seconds,"Ray said.

Ray also tried to contact Charles Barkley for years. He never heard anything from him because Barkley had never seen any of Ray's mail. Ray finnaly contacted the public relations reprsenative for the Phoenix Suns. "He was just like everyone else... He had a friend or family mamber that was suffering from diabetes,"Ray said. The represenitive gave Barkley the tape, and later Barkley wrote Ray cummending him on his efforts, but said he could not help at the present time. "After that I sent him a letter thanking him for his time. I mean he has a busy schedule, but he took home a VHS and watched it,"Ray said. Recently, Ray has envisioned the next level of his mission. He has challenged Charles Barkley to a three-point shooting contest. If Ray wins the contest, Barkley has to donate 1 hour to make a public service announcment about diabetes. "My public relation firm and I haave propsed this idea to the Housten Rockets. We haven't heard anything yet, but right now we consider no news is good news," Ray said.

Ray wants to get the public invoved in supporting the three-point contest. Public attention is what Ray needs, and he will start to receive it soon. Ray will be featured in the March Issue of "Inside Sports." If Ray recieves enough publicity than this contest will become a reality.

"I would like to see the Rockets's post office box full of letters and then have 2 or 3 mail bags waiting for them," he said "If enough people respond, it will be hard for the Rockets to say no."

If diabetes awarness grows than it will be commen knowlege that 16 million Americans suffer from it, that there are two types of diabetes and thet November is National Diabetes Awarness Month. "The awarness and knowlege would be expanded a million times over. During November I did not see one public service announcment for diabetes," Ray said.

It's people like Charles Ray who have the same attitude as the young man walking along the ocean. They realize anyone can make a difference at that all you have to do is believe that you have the ability to do so. If people continue to supprot Ray on his crusade than this silent killer could be sienced forever. All it takes is one letter to "make a difference."

By Lisa Irby
Technician Staff Writer.