During the 2024-2025 academic year, Iona Prep students Matty Zimmerman, Daniel Resua, and Lucius LoCicero, served as Iona Prep’s ACTION Youth Ambassadors under the guidance of Iona Prep teacher and ACTION Moderator, Christine Chana. Last year, their outstanding efforts on advocacy campaigns surrounding homelessness, children’s concerns and chronic illness, and environmental concerns helped to earn them the 2024-2025 Tom Gambardella ACTION Advocacy Award.

But their campaign on children’s rights and chronic illness truly hit home because one of their members, Matty, was intimately aware of the challenges because of his own experiences as a Type-1 Diabetic. The group’s efforts focused on raising awareness of the challenges and disparate costs of diabetic supplies, and helped to raise funds to support families burdened by these costs.

Fueled by this inspiration, the group connected with Breakthrough T1D, an organization that guides families affected by Type-1 Diabetes and supports policies and programs to support research and meaningful legislation. The students created a campaign to involve their whole school in advocating for the cause, hosting a dress down day, bake sale and weight lifting event to raise awareness and funds, connecting with researchers to learn more about the challenges of the disease, and connecting with Iona Prep Lower School students to educate them about the challenges of Type-1 Diabetes. The group’s efforts made a huge impact at Iona and beyond, but the group was unable to hold the signature event that they had hoped for during the 2024-2025 year: a fundraiser with a former New York Mets professional baseball player, Ron Darling, who has worked to support Diabetes research due to his son’s experience as a Type-1 Diabetic.

Undeterred, and inspired by their success last year, the group of now seniors picked up where they left off in the fall of 2025. During lunches in November, the ACTION Ambassadors led a legislator influence campaign where they recruited dozens of students to email members of U.S. Congress to support a bipartisan bill to extend the nearly expired Special Diabetes Program. This federal fund provides $160 million annually to the National Institutes of Health for the research of type 1 diabetes. In early February 2026, aided by the advocacy efforts of the ACTION Ambassadors and Iona Prep students, the bill was signed into law, and the fund was extended through December of 2026.

Simultaneously, the group was also working diligently behind the scenes on making their signature event happen. Thanks to Matty’s introduction to former Mets pitcher Ron Darling year prior, Matty reached out to Ron via email inviting him to participate in the fundraiser event at Iona Prep. On the evening of November 6, their two years of hard work paid off when they held their Type-1 Diabetes fundraiser with Ron Darling in the school’s cafeteria.

Over the last two years, Matty, Daniel, and Lucius’ efforts have raised more than $20,000 to support families affected by Type-1 Diabetes, and to support research for a cure. ACTION Moderator and Iona Prep Teacher, Christina Chana, stayed with the theme of baseball while reflecting on on the ACTION Student Ambassadors’ impact, saying: “Major League Baseball’s Roberto Clemente famously said, ”If you have a chance to accomplish something that will make things better for people coming behind you, and you don't do that, you are wasting your time on this earth”.

Matty, Danny, and Lucius live this ethos each day, by making the effort, and doing the work to stand in solidarity with those marginalized by poverty and injustice (and health challenges).

To learn more about their work, and to see a story about their night with Mets Pitcher Ron Darling, click here.