In November 2023, Jim and David Leef (and others) donated a big check to BreakthroughT1D (formerly JDRF) and Children’s Wisconsin for Type One Diabetes (T1D) research. It wasn’t the first check they’ve donated, and it certainly won’t be the last.
To date, the Leef’s have raised more than $1 million for T1D research. But the Leef’s would be the first to tell you they didn’t do it alone. Hall of Famers, Olympians, MVPs, along with retired Brewers reliever Ken ‘Bulldog’ Sanders, have all helped raise the money, in honor of an extraordinary man named George Leef.
RELATED: Click to learn more about the 2024 Tee Up Fore the Cure golf outing.
George and Ruth Leef were the proud parents of six children: George, Karen, Cathy, Jim, David, and Ann.
“It’s tough raising six kids,” youngest son David told WTMJ. “I don’t know how they did it.”
“What I admire so much about my dad is what a kind man he was,” added Jim.
Jim and David Leef are third generation owners of ITU AbsorbTech in New Berlin. Their father, George, ran the company before them.
“I think it was my brother George who said it first: Dad taught ‘stealth lessons,'” Jim explained. “You didn’t know you were being taught, but you were. “
“He put together a terrific life despite the fact he was a Type 1 Diabetic (since he was a boy).”
George was diagnosed in 1929. It’s believed he was one of the first children in history to take insulin, a lifesaving medicine first produced in 1921.
“Every morning and every night, Mom would go to the refrigerator and get out a little steel box full of syringes and give him a shot,” Jim recalled.
“There was no drama with it,” David said. “Most of the time, (my parents) didn’t really try to hide it.”
“I think Mom and Dad protected us from the true ugly nature of the disease,” Jim said.
George lived with T1D at a time when there was very little tech to treat it (other than diet and exercise). This while also running a business, and taking care of a family of eight. He also LOVED sports. George especially enjoyed the links.
“He loved to play golf,” Jim smiled. “He wasn’t particularly good at it, but he enjoyed the experience.”
In 2006, a year before George passed away, the Leef’s organized a golf outing in his honor.
“It was a friends, family, and business event,” Jim remembered. “We did it late in the year. I remember telling people ‘before you put the clubs away for the winter, how about one more event? We’ll do it as a tribute to Dad.’ We’ll also raise a few bucks (for T1D research). And when I say ‘few bucks,’ it was really really modest.”
How did they go from raising a few bucks the first year to totaling more than $1-million by 2023?!
“I was once on the phone with a staffer from JDRF and she said, ‘Oh by the way, do you know Ken Sanders? You ought to call him,'” Jim explained.
Sanders, a Brewers reliever in the 1970’s, lived in the Milwaukee area and has a grandson with T1D. When he heard about there was a golf outing raising money for diabetes research, Sanders was all in. He immediately began recruiting his friends.
“Getting together with (Sanders) transformed ‘Tee Up Fore the Cure’ from a cute little family event, to what it’s become today with the celebrity athletes participating,” Jim said.
Year One included Brewers MVP and MLB Hall of Famer Robin Yount!
“We didn’t see it coming,” David admitted. “We were very fortunate to get Robin Yount to do the first one. I was like ‘Omigosh Ken can pull this off!'”
The event continued to grow, and the celebrities continued to show up.
“We had a glimmer of what it could become but I didn’t expect it to keep getting bigger and bigger.”
Bigger and bigger it has become, with more than a million dollars raised for T1D research in honor of George.
What would he think?
“He would’ve been flabbergasted.”
CLICK TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS SEPTEMBER’s TEE UP FORE THE CURE!
LISTEN: My life with T1D
