When Jaime Greenberg’s son, Sean, began guzzling water between hockey drills and running to the bathroom after nearly every shift on the ice, it didn’t immediately raise alarms. “We thought he was just thirsty from playing so much because he played six days a week,” said Greenberg, 52, of Glen Cove.
Sean, who’s now 20, was 12 at the time, a travel hockey goalie, tough and determined — until the day when he vomited during a game.
Looking back, Greenberg recalls the moment with regret. “I was so upset,” he said. “I was like, ‘What’s going on? You’re not sick.’ And he just literally threw up in his goalie helmet.”
Sean had also lost so much weight that his heavy goalie equipment hung loosely on his frame. Within days, a blood test confirmed what his parents had begun to fear: He had Type 1 diabetes. His body was no longer producing insulin.
Greenberg will be honored on April 22 at the 20th annual Cooking for a Cure fundraiser, which supports the Diabetes Research Institute Foundation. The event, co-founded by Nassau County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton and held in Bayville, has raised more than $1.5 million over its two-decade run to advance cure-focused diabetes research.
For Greenberg, an adoption lawyer, the cause is deeply personal. Just months before Sean’s diagnosis, he had a frightening health scare of his own. Driving his son to a hockey tournament near Boston, Greenberg blacked out behind the wheel. “My blood sugar was probably in the 300s or 400s,” he said. Sean had to grab the steering wheel and guide the car to the side of the road. Shortly afterward, Greenberg was diagnosed with Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes. things that are going to help my family and help people with diabetes,” Greenberg said. “I’m involved in a lot of things, but this comes right home.”
His path to involvement began at Glen Cove Junior Soccer, where he serves as president. There he has spoken often with DeRiggi-Whitton, the event co-founder, and they spoke frequently about their children and their respective experiences with type 1 diabetes and love of soccer. At 3-years-old, her daughter, Amanda, was diagnosed after manifesting subtle symptoms that could easily have been missed.
“She started to wet the bed again,” DeRiggi-Whitton recalled. “She was lethargic a little bit, she’d lost 2 pounds — nothing too dramatic.” Trusting her instincts, she insisted on having her daughter tested. Amanda’s blood sugar was 530 — more than five times the typical value. “Had I taken her home that night, she could have ended up in a diabetic coma,” she said. “I always tell people just to follow their gut feeling and keep an eye on the water.”
Cooking for a Cure was born out of that fear and determination. “This is our 20th event,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “It took 22 years to get here because we had Covid, so we stopped for two years. It’s a big milestone for a group of friends who decided to help me and run this.” What began as a grassroots effort has grown into a powerful network of families directly affected by juvenile diabetes.
“One of the worst things that happened to me was my daughter being diagnosed,” she said. “But one of the best things that’s ever happened to me are the people I’ve met through this.”
Greenberg joined the event’s committee in 2019, shortly after he challenged and lost to DeRiggi-Whitton in the race for the 11th seat in the county Legislature. Despite their political rivalry, the two bonded over their children’s diagnoses. “After the election, here we are, and we’re friends,” DeRiggi-Whitton said. “I am so honored to be having him as our honoree. That’s the way the world should work.”
The funds that Cooking for a Cure raises support cutting-edge research at the Diabetes Research Institute, in Miami, Fla., a global leader in cure- and prevention-focused science. Dr. Joana Lemos, the institute’s associate director of scientific communications and data analytics, said the organization’s work centers on one goal: “changing the course of diabetes by finding the cure, not just managing it.”
Its research encompasses protecting and restoring insulin-producing beta cells, refining targeted immune therapies and advancing cell replacement strategies. “The unifying goal is the same,” Lemos said. “To preserve or restore the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar naturally.”
She added that the institute’s work differs from traditional treatment models. “From the DRI’s perspective, the most promising near-term advances are those that modify the disease itself rather than simply improving symptom management,” Lemos said, pointing to prevention trials and refined cell-replacement therapies that aim to make treatments safer and longer lasting.
Researchers now understand that Type 1 diabetes does not begin suddenly, with its diagnosis. “We now understand much more about the early stages, when beta cells are stressed but still present,” Lemos said. Preserving even partial insulin production can lead to “more stable glucose levels and fewer complications.”
For Greenberg, that research represents hope — not just for Sean, who is now thriving, but also for families that may face the same diagnosis. Greenberg calls his son his “hero.” Despite the daily management of insulin pumps, glucose monitors and strict dietary vigilance, Sean has adapted. “He just took it head-on,” his father said. “He took something negative and made it a positive.”
Cooking for a Cure will celebrate that resilience while continuing its mission to fund research aimed at preventing and ultimately curing diabetes. Tickets to the April fundraiser are $125. For more information, contact Mariah Moscone at (954) 964-4040, ext. 1123, or mmoscone@drif.org.
