We are extremely honored to announce that our work for DHF has been nominated for “The Innovator” award of the Revolucionario Awards.

The Revolucionario Awards are given by “The Social Revolución”, an interactive movement of Latinos using social media as their platform to create change, and are dedicated to highlighting visionaries and change-makers in the online comunidad.

Diabetes Hands Foundation’s work has been nominated for  “The Innovator” Award: “Whether it’s a new app or website, this movement is redefining how we reach Latinos now and in the future.

El Innovator can be an individual, group, organization, or brand with the ganas to inspire change online and off…” “ They utilize the newest online tools to engage la gente in their networks and mobilize them to take action. Whether they have 10 followers or 10,000 fans, The Revolucionario ignites change and, with that, embodies the cry of the The Social Revolución!”

In “Revolucionario’s” words: “Diabetes Hands Foundation has been instrumental to the development of the DHF’s diabetes awareness programs and continued outreach to offer support and diabetes information to nearly 200,000 people touched by diabetes every month. Manny Hernández, its president, is a pioneer of social media and online communication. He and DHF’s staff have dedicated their time to raise awareness, outreach, and support for people touched by diabetes in both English and Spanish.

In 2007 they founded TuDiabetes.org and EsTuDiabetes.org, two online communities in English and Spanish, where people touched by diabetes can connect and share.”

The Revolucionario Awards will be announced on March 12th. We’ll keep you posted.

We wanted to share a great write-up by Allie Beatty, posted on The Diabetes Resource:

“So when I saw this study on how Facebook can affect your physical and psychological responses, immediately I see the segue into how it all comes together with diabetes. The peer-reviewed journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking published the findings of this study.“

Read more…

The Telly Awards is a widely known and highly respected national and international competition. Last year, Diabetes Hands Foundation received two 2011 Telly Awards . In 2012, The Big Blue Test video was recognized with a Silver Award, the competition’s first prize, in the category of “Internet/Online Programs, Segments, or Promotional Pieces – Charitable/Not-for-profit” and with a Bronze award in the category of “Internet/Online Programs, Segments, or Promotional Pieces – Health and Wellness”.

The video,approximately 2 minutes long, was directed and edited by Sean Ross (http://ethosphane.com). It features children and adults who have diabetes surfing, running, swimming, climbing, hiking, dancing and cycling, while inviting people to do the Big Blue Test to help themselves and help people with diabetes in need. For every test completed, a donation was made to support people with diabetes in need. Roche Diabetes Care funded the program and the donations that helped save the lives of more than 8,000 people 

This award winning video promoted the 2011 Big Blue Test, a program created by Diabetes Hands Foundation to raise awareness of the importance of exercise to help manage diabetes. To do the Big Blue Test, we invite people with diabetes to test their blood sugar, do 14-20 minutes of physical activity, test again and share the results on BigBlueTest.org

Good news: If you were following @tudiabetes on Twitter, now you are following @DiabetesHF, The new and updated Twitter page of Diabetes Hand Foundation where we will be posting our English updates.

From now on, you can easily follow all Diabetes Hands Foundation and TuDiabetes updates on Twitter under one account: Test @DiabetesHF. By following us at @DiabetesHF on Twitter you won’t only be updated on both the most important topics discussed at TuDiabetes and on the latest blog posts and news of Diabetes Hands Foundation. You’ll also find relevant information from different media curated by our staff and our by most important asset: our community.

(Photo by Sohair Abdel-Rahman)

DHF President, Manny Hernandez, presented this week at the World Diabetes Congress in Dubai about the benefits of social media for people touched by diabetes. Watch a video of the presentation and follow the slides.

(Video by David Edelman)

We are very proud to announce that Kelly Close has been elected to the Board of Directors of Diabetes Hands Foundation. Kelly is Editor-in-Chief of “diaTribe“, an e-newsletter for people eager to learn more about better managing diabetes and President of Close Concerns, Inc., a healthcare information firm devoted to the business of diabetes. Kelly shared why she supports the Diabetes Hands Foundation:

“The Diabetes Hands Foundation has a bold and inspiring mission – one that I’m proud and humbled to be part of. It recognizes that individuals with diabetes need to reach out, touch, and connect with others like them. The organization puts a priority on education, empathy, support, creativity, and hope. It acknowledges our many differences and finds strength in our diversity. Above all, it celebrates our humanity.”

Prior to being elected to join the DHF Board of Directors, Kelly served as an advisor of the Diabetes Hands Foundation for nearly 3 years.

After a generous extension until midnight, Nov. 15, Accu-Chek (the program sponsor) granted us taking into consideration the outage we experienced during World Diabetes Day… we passed the goal of 8,000 Big Blue Test entries!!

The diabetes online community participated in full force, turning in a little over 4,000 entries. Type 3′s (our friends and loved ones) helped us reach the goal with their participation!

As a result of the goal we just passed, in the coming days we will be granting the following amounts:
* US$25,000 to International Diabetes Federation’s Life For a Child program.
* US$10,000 to Moundville Medical Clinic, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
* US$10,000 to LIFT For Teens/Walk and Play For Wellness in San Rafael, CA
* US$10,000 to University of Colorado Denver
* US$10,000 to St. Anthony Medical Clinic, St. Anthony Foundation in San Francisco, CA
* US$10,000 to Pecos Valley Medical Center, Inc. Pecos NM

We will also share the anonymized results submitted by people with diabetes with two research groups, to help us analyze them and learn more from The Big Blue Test and, hopefully, touch even MORE lives in 2012 with it!

Thank you to each and every one of you who participated in The Big Blue Test! In particular, thanks to:
* Rob Muller and Todd Siesky: champions of the project at Roche, the program sponsor.
* Sean Ross and Jeffrey Lee: Director and Production Coordinator for the Big Blue Test video.
* Each of the people who lent their time and patiently worked with Sean and Jeffrey in the video. * Capital Cities: who let us use their amazing track “Safe and Sound” for the video.
* Matthew Dimmett: who designed and implemented the new Big Blue Test web site.
* Andreina Davila: whose creative direction made the project a success once more.
* Emily Walton and Emily Coles: for supporting the project along the way.
* David Edelman and Riva Greenberg: who offered key advice throughout the project.
* Michele Huie: Communications guru extraordinaire, who helped us with all the PR!
* Fatima Shahzad: who worked her social media magic in support of the Big Blue Test.
* Rachel Konte: for designing the gorgeous Big Blue Test t-shirts.
* Mariana Gomez: for support with Spanish translations.
* Fabiana Couto: for support with Portuguese translations.
* Each of the charitable groups: who offered their help in getting the word out about the Big Blue Test. In particular, Heather Whitley, from the Auburn University Harrison School of Pharmacy; Isabella Platon at International Diabetes Federation; Richard Waxman and Genevieve Foster, from LIFT – Levántate for Teens; and Wesley Nuffer and Dana A. Brandorff, at University of Colorado, Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
* The DOC, all our friends and partners: who helped get the word out about the campaign over and over.

To remind you what your participation in The Big Blue Test made possible, watch this video that showcases one of the groups getting a Big Blue Test grant…

The month of November has been jam packed with activity and media coverage surrounding diabetes, as it should be given that it’s diabetes awareness month.

Our President, Manny Hernandez, was recently featured in two publications on the basis of DHF’s work with pharmaceutical sponsors, such as Roche, LifeScan, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi-Aventis: Medical Marketing & Media and PharmaForum We invite you to read them for a different perspective of our work.

If you are interested in exploring sponsorship opportunities with Diabetes Hands Foundation, contact us.

Since Nov. 1, we’ve nearly 1,700 Big Blue Test entries. Daniel Conn, who’s had diabetes for 19 years, has done it twice:

“Not only does it feel great to manage my blood sugar through exercise, but the energy I feel after completing these [Big Blue Test] workouts is great! Everyone do the test every day… see the results in your life and help this great cause.”

Daniel is helping himself and he is helping others… once and again! Each time you do The Big Blue Test you help yourself (you see the impact on your blood sugars) and you directly help a person with diabetes in need.

Why? The first 8,000 Big Blue Test entries we get by World Diabetes Day (November 14, 2011) will result in a total donation of $75,000 from Roche Diabetes Care to support 5 nonprofit groups that work in regions with a high incidence of diabetes in the US, and to support the work in Latin America by Life for a Child. Watch this video about one of the selected charities:

If you have diabetes, test your blood sugar, get active, test again and share your results on BigBlueTest.org. If you don’t have diabetes, just get active alongside your D-loved one and share.

Any way you do it, you help yourself and you help others… Every result counts!

Diabetes Hands Foundation is honored to have our President, Manny Hernandez, among SharecareNow’s Top 10 Online Influencers in Diabetes.

Of the 10 people acknowledged by Sharecare, 9 of them are members of the Diabetes Advocates program run by Diabetes Hands Foundation (DHF), including DHF advisors Kerri Sparling, Kelly Close and Riva Greenberg.