What is working well in your community, healthcare, blogs, social media, or your work in particular? What do you like about it?
November is diabetes awareness month, so it is the perfect time to write about what's working in the diabetes community. There are so many terrific things happening this month, ranging from Blue Fridays, to the Big Blue Test, to the WDD Postcard Exchange, to World Diabetes Day itself on November 14th. Check 'em all out!
Another brilliant idea by #DSMA creator Cherise Shockley in which people are asked to spread diabetes awareness by wearing blue not just on World Diabetes Day, but on every Friday for the month of November. Think blue. Wear blue. Watch the following video for more info.
This diabetes awareness program is spearheaded by the Diabetes Hands Foundation and runs until World Diabetes Day on November 14th. The goal of the program is to reinforce the importance of exercise in managing diabetes. People with diabetes are encouraged to do the Big Blue Test any day between November 1 and November 14 at midnight Pacific Time, by testing their blood sugar, getting active, testing again, and sharing the results online at bigbluetest.org.
"In the last two years, just 14 minutes of exercise decreased participants’ blood sugar level between 15 and 20 percent. In 2010, more than 2,000 people did the Big Blue Test. Over 120,000 people watched the Big Blue Test video. Roche Diabetes Care, makers of ACCU-CHEK® diabetes products and services, funded the production of the video and helped it go viral by donating 75 cents for each of the first 100,000 views, resulting in total donation of $75,000. The donation provided insulin and supplies to more than 2,000 people with diabetes in developing countries.
In 2011, in connection with the number of people that do the Big Blue Test, another donation from Roche Diabetes Care will benefit more than 8,000 people with diabetes in need. Five nonprofit organizations focused on helping under served areas with a high incidence of diabetes in the United States will each receive $10,000, while $25,000 will go to support the work in Latin America by the International Diabetes Federation’s Life for a Child Program."
This awesome initiative is by Lee Ann Thill over at The Butter Compartment and is an old-fashioned, snail mail postcard swap between people whose lives are affected in some way by diabetes.
Anyone can sign up - whether you are type 1, type 2, LADA, or a spouse, parent, or sibling of someone with diabetes. Simply email your name and mailing address to Lee Ann and she will match you up with your recipient. Then you create an actual card stock postcard and mail it to your recipient in time for them to receive it on or before World Diabetes Day November 14th!
For full info, including Lee Ann's email address, head over to Lee Ann's Postcard Exchange post at The Butter Compartment!
World Diabetes Day is the pinnacle diabetes awareness campaign for the month of November. Created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation, WDD became an official United Nations day in 2007. "The campaign draws attention to issues of paramount importance to the diabetes world and keeps diabetes firmly in the public spotlight. This year sees the second of a five-year campaign that will address the growing need for diabetes education and prevention programs.
World Diabetes Day is a campaign that features a new theme chosen by the IDF each year to address issues facing the global diabetes community. While the themed campaigns last the whole year, the day itself is celebrated on November 14th, to mark the birthday of Frederick Banting who, along with Charles Best, first conceived the idea which led to the discovery of insulin in 1922."
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