In 13 years, Jesse Alswager probably did more than most do in a lifetime, said his father, Tom Alswager, on Wednesday night.
Jesse was a skateboarder, snowboarder, baseball player, guitarist and drummer, and had a great sense of humor as well.
"He was probably the funniest kid in the world," said his sister, Samantha, 16. "He did anything to make someone laugh."
Alswager, a seventh-grader at Toki Middle School, was honored at a fundraiser Wednesday after his death Feb. 3 from complications of type 1 diabetes. Since he was diagnosed at age 3, the disease never held him back, his father said, but he touched a lot of lives during his advocacy for research towards a cure.
In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, a hormone needed to convert food to energy. Previously known as juvenile diabetes, it's usually diagnosed in children and young adults, according to the American Diabetes Association.
In 2003, Alswager and his mother, Michelle Page Alswager, traveled to Washington, D.C., with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Children's Congress, and participated in a Senate hearing with 200 other children with type 1 diabetes from around the world. To push for stem cell research, Alswager met with Senators Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold, then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson and Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, who attended his funeral Monday night.
Governor Jim Doyle recognized Alswager in his 2006 State of the State address for his efforts on the Children's Congress.
To his family and friends, Alswager was a well-liked peacekeeper with an old soul. He loved music, and at his funeral, his music teachers performed Green Day's Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) as well as Octopus's Garden, a song by the Beatles that Alswager was learning to play on guitar.
"He would have loved this," his mother said about the fundraiser held at the Lazy Oaf Lounge bar and restaurant, 1617 N. Stoughton Road, which his father co-owns. Alswager sometimes came in to hang out with his dad and watch sports, she said. Half of the fundraiser's sales will go toward a memorial fund in Alswager's name.
Page Alswager, the former executive director of the JDRF Western Wisconsin chapter, added she planned to participate in the JDRF Ride to Cure Diabetes bike ride in Death Valley, Calif., in October. She said her advocacy will still be going strong after her son's death.
"I think he would tell me, ‘Keep fighting, Mom.'"
