Our Story
It all started in 2015 with a simple prompt from a local store: "If you were to create a community event, what would you do?"
This got our founder, Cassie Jackson, thinking. Her daughter had been living with Type 1 Diabetes, a currently cureless chronic disease, for 8 years. The Jackson family was constantly looking for ways to raise money for T1D research, in hopes of eventually finding a cure. So, being an avid runner, Cassie said, "I would do a 5k run, but all the proceeds would go to Type 1 research." Soon after she presented the idea the store offered to fully fund the race so all the money raised would go to the JDRF.
Cassie accepted their offer and on December 31st, 2015, with help from the Johnson family, who also happened to have a daughter with T1D, the very first Countdown To None 5k race began.
In 2018, the Barry family officially joined the CTN village as Countdown to None, Inc. was approved for designation as a 501(c)(3) in efforts to make a larger and more direct impact on those living with Type 1 in their community.