Today, Diabetes Hands Foundation proudly announced the 16 finalists in the 2012 DHF Seeds micro-grant program.

DHF Seeds, which will now award nine US$2,000 micro-grants, is made possible, in part, through funding provided by Sanofi US Diabetes.

The finalist proposals received the highest scores in their respective categories from our judges and will move on to the second phase of the DHF Seeds micro-grants application process.

The finalists are listed below alphabetically by category.

Category: Connecting people touched by diabetes
* College Diabetes Network Chapter Toolkit, submitted by Jo Treitman of The College Diabetes Network
* Diabetes Phone Connection, submitted by Aliza Chana Zaleon of Aliza with Diabetes
* Parents Needing Answers Webinar Series, submitted by Cheryl Eklund of Our Wisdom Shared, Corp.
* World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange, submitted by Lee Ann Thill, MA, ATR-BC, LPC
* You Can Do This Project submitted by Kim Vlasnik of Texting My Pancreas

Category: Educating and informing people about diabetes
* Drinking with Diabetes: A Type 1 Survival Guide, submitted by Bennet Dunlap of theBetes:NOW
* Free Diabetes Board Game, submitted by Paul Tracey of Learning About Diabetes, Inc.
* Levántate, a Program Without Walls!, submitted by Richard Waxman of LIFT – Levántate
* Pick Your Future, submitted by Veronica Medrano of SW KS Diabetes Prevention and Control Program with UMMAM
* The Sweet Lowdown, submitted by Mary Dexter of Dexter Productions and Heather Renken of Broom Street Theater
* Vlogging Diabetes at Your Request, submitted by Ginger Vieira of Living in Progress

Category: Empowering people living with diabetes
* DASH Camp: Diabetes and Sports Health Camp, submitted by Lucas Fogarty of Diabetes and Sports Health, Inc.
* Project 365: One Year of Taking Type 1 Diabetes to Extremes, submitted by Stephen Richert of LivingVertical, Inc.
* Riding On Insulin UK, submitted by Mollie Busby of Riding on Insulin
* Rumor Mill: A Type 1 Diabetes Teen Journey, submitted by Cheryl Eklund of Our Wisdom Shared, Corp.
* Sweat-Betes! Exercise at Home with Diabetes!, submitted by Ginger Vieira of Living in Progress

Each finalist will produce a 3-minute video explaining their proposal: what they plan to do, who would benefit, and why this proposal deserves the public’s support. These videos will be posted on the Diabetes Hands Foundation’s Vimeo channel [https://vimeo.com/diabeteshf/] for a public vote.

Voting will run from Monday, May 21st through Friday, June 15th. The public can show their support for individual proposals by clicking a Vimeo “Like,” posting a Facebook “Like,” Tweeting about the video and/or giving it a +1 on Google.

The final funding decisions will be based on the public vote for and the judges’ scoring of the individual proposals. For detailed information about DHF Seeds, visit: http://www.diabeteshandsfoundation.org/our-programs/dhf-seeds

Week TWO of the No Sugar Added® Poetry contest closed last Thursday, and our panel of expert judges have chosen three wonderful winners and two honorable mentions! Check out the great work below, and congratulations to our second round of winners!!

Our winners this week

1st place: “I Am Only Eight… Through the Eyes of a Child”, by Juan Carlos Vazquez

2nd place: “The Cure”, by Jerry Nairn

3rd place: “Hurting Life” by Q, uploaded by Leighann

Honorable mention also goes to Elizabeth Strait for “A Letter to the Pain In My Side” and Mary Jo for “Old Dogs and New Tricks”

Congratulations to our winners, and to all our beautiful poets, and an invitation to keep sending your poems if you haven’t done it yet.

Read our winning poems below!!

by Juan Carlos Vazquez
786 my life changed…..
786 I thought I was going to die…..
I am only eight…
I want to play
I want to build things
I want to be a regular boy
I am only eight…
Get up in the morning…check my sugar..What are my readings … Did I log my readings?
Every time I put food in my mouth, did I check my sugar?
Every day I check my sugar
If it is high…check for ketones…then drink lots of water
I feel like a fish.
I am only eight
I want candy
I want chocolate milk
If I sneak it I will get sick
I am only eight
Life’s not fair
Why, I ask, why me?
Mom teaches me how to check my sugar, give myself injections, and change my pump.
I am only eight.
Who cares?
Will there be cure?
Should I worry?
I am only eight.
I care
I will find a cure.
Now I am twelve
I check my sugar
I eat right and exercise
I play
I have friends who like me for who I am.

by Jerry Nairn
For years they prayed for the day,
the day they could stop
bleeding him for blood sugars.
staring at his food,
counting the carbohydrates,
insulin on board…
They wished they could forget it all,
all of the knowledge and lore,
the glycemic index,
site sensitivity,
medical adhesives,
long-term complications…
… as if it weren’t all complicated.
They wanted to stop worrying
about the impact of joyful play
on blood sugar balance.
So they wished for the day,
the day they could get rid of it all…
boxes of test strips,
the sharp things, needles, lancets, syringes,
the technological marvels…
meters, pumps, sensors,
the tools of replacing beta cells
and mimicking
the way the body is supposed to work,
the insulin
would all finally be stacked up in a big pile,
packed up to be sent away.
They wished and prayed the day would come,
But diabetes left in the night,
And with it took their son.

By Q, Age 7, diagnosed at 3
I am sad,
I am scared.
Why did I have to get it?
I have shots
And pump changes
And CGM changes.
And more and more and more,
And more and more and more.

A Letter to the Pain in My Side

by Elizabeth Strait
Hello again,
To my familiar little prick,
My inconvenient lifeline;
At least you’re tiny, sharp, and quick.
Though the pain just lasts a second,
You stick to me somehow;
A tiny little burden
I’ll have to cope with now.
You pop up under T-shirts,
Protruding from my side;
A tiny little bump
I try my best to hide.
But you’re just the cuff
To my ball and chain.
Now to that Ball;
Hiding YOU is a pain!
You’re heavy, big, and fat,
You’ve hooked yourself on me,
A necessary bother
But I sometimes want set free.
Where am I supposed to put you
Say, if I’m in a dress?
Though I can solve that problem,
It’s not something that I’ll confess.
And when I’ve got you hidden
Is just when I need you out;
Now that’s a public scene
I’d rather do without…
You two are bothersome enough,
But before I say adieu,
I’ll give credit to the chain
As you cause trouble too.
Getting caught, getting tangled;
You’re just as bad as they!
Too bad I need the insulin
That you pump my way…

by Mary Jo Powellt
This poem is dedicated to Anne Newton from Medtronic and Kelley Crumpler from Brazos Valley Endocrinology.
Know that old saying ’bout “new tricks” and “old dogs”?
I’m now out to prove that it should give one pause.
After 50-plus years of syringes and vials,
With good days and bad nights and plenty of trials,
I’ve entered a new world of sensors and pumps
And am finding it’s giving me plenty of lumps.
It’s like learning to do this all over again
And struggling to make all this “stuff” a new friend.
I;m now dealing with decimals instead of just ones,
Finding what I don’t know is measured in tons.
But learning new things is a challenge in life
And one that can cause you a great deal of strife.
But thank God for nice people who’re willing to help,
Like Anne from Medtronic and Kelley herself.
And there’s doctors and bloggers and other friends too
All anxious to help me learn just what to do.
So I head on, determined, in this new exploit,
Hoping that soon I’ll become more adroit.
For I know that others have done this same thing
And that soon I will grasp that elusive brass ring
Then control my condition, not let it rule me,
And then show what I’ve learned so that others can see.
All to prove that “new tricks” can be learned by “old dogs,”
And facing new challenges need not give one pause.

Photo: Robert Houser

Every Wednesday evening, there is a moderated hour-long Twitter chat (Diabetes Social Media Advocacy or #DSMA) dedicated to diabetes-themed discussions. Members of the diabetes online community come together to share their thoughts and opinions on issues important to them. The conversation continues on the DSMA Live blogtalkradio show the following day (Thursday) at 9 PM EST.

This week’s DSMA Live will feature Manny Hernandez, Diabetes Hands Foundation Founder and President, as a guest. Thursday, April 26 at 9 pm EST, he’ll be appearing on DSMA Live at blogtalkradio.com/diabetessocmed.

In the show Manny will be answering a few questions about himself, his life with diabetes and the Diabetes Hands Foundation, and his perspective on life experiences living with diabetes. The show will air at 9 PM EST and ends at 10 PM EST.

The No Sugar Added® Poetry contest is off to a fantastic start this year! Our very first week saw 46 beautiful, inspiring and evocative submissions. TuDiabetes.org is truly a gifted community.

1st place: “Job Posting”, by Leanne

2nd place: “The Elites…”, by Alexis Nicole

3rd place: “She is Twenty-Six” by Devon

Honorable mention also goes to Heidi98 for “The DiabetiThon” and Andy for “467″,

Congratulations to our winners, and to all our beautiful poets.

by Leanne
Looking for self-motivated, committed individual to take over while I go on sabbatical
Applicants must be available 24 hours a day, every day, no holidays. Duties are
schedule office visits
schedule prescription delivery, supplies can never run out
renew prescriptions, prescriptions can never expire
calculate insulin doses
adjust insulin doses
count nutritional data with every morsel of food that enters body
adjust insulin doses
drink juice
adjust insulin doses
take insulin
drink juice
administer shots on stomach, arm, thigh, or butt
eat
exercise but only when glucose is stable and in normal range
take insulin
drink juice
pay co-pays
save money to pay co-pays
take shot
call doctor at 3am when glucose is high
drink water to flush out toxins
stick fingers
draw blood
test urine
take insulin
count nutritional data
drink juice
exercise
eat
never let pump out of sight, not even during sex
hide pump under clothes, in bra, in pockets, on thigh
insert needles into skin
connect tubing
ignore low blood sugar during exam even though hands shaking, sweat dripping down face, vision foggy
ignore high blood sugar while out with friends even though stomach reeling, muscles drained of energy
go to bathroom to hide
turn alarm on pump to vibrate during exam
ignore complaining classmate about alarm during class
don’t forget to test
don’t forget to test
adjust insulin
drink juice
take shot
don’t die

By Alexis Nicole
Its 3am.
The world is sleeping. Except for the chosen ones.
I call them The Elites.
Zip. Pop. Click. Beep. Poke. Beep.
Count down begins. Feels like an eternity.
5…Thoughts of what will happen next circle my mind. A sleeping child pulls away, to cuddle his teddy bear. A snoring spouse can be heard through the thin walls.
4…A restless brother is tossing and turning, I try not to wake him. I glance at his fingers, already so blistered, and wonder what another 20 years will bring to them.
3….I wonder if the other Elites will sleep tonight. Will I? Will I need to coax a sugary substance between his pursed lips?
2……Or fumble in the dark, to push buttons, to administer some life juice?
1…..Beeeeeep! Deep breath in.
117.
Exhale.
I kiss his sweet face, whispering I love him. Thinking to myself that he will never know how much.
I finally lay my head down on the pillow, readying myself to do it again.
6am.
Zip..Pop…

By: Devon Haemer
She is twenty-six -<
Invincible.
A vibrant woman, so self-assured.
Until she goes low -
That dreaded moment when
Her confidence plunges,
A waterfall of panicky tears.
Suddenly she is two again -
Begging juice and peanut butter cracker
Off complete strangers at the beach.
How humiliating!
These moments are the sludgy bogs
That slurp down her hopes.
She slumps, anchored fast to the beach towel,
While her foggy brain gets pummeled by vicious waves of doubt.
“Can I endure these lows and highs,
These needles and numbers forever?!”
“I can’t possibly travel abroad like this!”
“How will I ever handle motherhood as a diabetic?!”
Then the juice and crackers manage to saturate
Her body’s yearning cells.
And her thoughts allow her space to breathe.
She has energy, enough energy to unbury her hopes.
And she is twenty-six, again –
Nearly invincible
A vibrant woman, self-assured.

By Heidi98
The road stretches straight ahead
Miles and miles, off into the darkness
and yet it seems so oddly familiar
like an endless loop
for I am no hero,& I have been here before
drop-by-drop,counting the gallons lost
hole-by-hole, playing Connect-the-Dots with the scars
Diabetes: 5000 Me:0
seeking to lessen the damage
in this Diabeti-Marathon
I run to live
and my prize is being alive
for in this race,there is more taking then giving
kidneys
heart
eyesight
every other complication under the sun
Am I doing this right?
no one can tell
Although confirming my failures is easily done
and yet I think at least I’m doing well
and good for many more rounds around the track
but the monotony is stifling
and I am tired to my core
day in,day out
days to weeks to months to years to decades
it never ends
Can a human being live this way?
I want to believe in a cure
but the passage of time
jades the most enthusiastic of people
so I settle for survival
and I wait for the sun to come up
the diet coke to kick in
And then I see that I am not alone
You are not alone
We are not alone.
We run together.

by Andy Altman (Spring 2003, age 13)
467, the number that changed my life
On that cold, dark Tuesday.
When 467 showed up,
I felt my heart do a flip.
So I tried again.
467 again.
Then I knew that not only my heart,
But my life had flipped too.
I hugged my dad
Silently crying,
Along with my grandparents,
Mom, and sisters too.
Soon my uncle was there
So I tried again.
And the glucometer said
My blood sugar was 455.
Still way too much.
So I sat down,
And watched a basketball game.
While my mom moped around
With my grandma.
And my dad told me
How my life would change
But it would be okay.
Soon I was at the hospital
With lots of sick people
In a big room
With a gory sitcom on the tv
It was then I was officially told
I had diabetes.
And I knew,
How 467 changed my life.

HealthLine scoured the web to hand select the top 17 diabetes blogs & websites of 2012 and we’re very honored to find out that our blog and TuDiabetes made it to the list.

In Healthline.com’s words “After poring over many, many diabetes blogs, looking for the best of the bunch, here we have collected seventeen of the best diabetes blogs for you to read. We trust that you will find these bloggers’ writings and experiences to be sources of both helpful information and hope.”

Read the list here

(Photo by Lee Ann Thill at http://www.thebuttercompartment.com)

In a live broadcast radio ceremony on March 29, the DSMA (Diabetes Social Media Advocates) announced the group had been working on a recognition program for people around the diabetes community, online and offline, who had been doing great things for the community, so they created a “Peer Recognition” and the first person they decided to go with was Diabetes Hands Foundation president, Manny Hernandez.

The DSMA explained to Manny that “this is something we wanted to do to recognize people that do great things in the diabetes community, whether is online or offline and you are actually our first candidate, so we would like to present you with the first DSMA Salute, to say thank you for everything you’ve done for the community and connecting people with diabetes.

The idea is to continue honoring and saluting people in the community, to reach people, to educate, to help, and we thought no better recipient for the first one than Manny Hernandez.

When awarded with the recognition, Manny said “This is awesome… Extremely special. I admire and respect you like you have no idea” “I believe none of this makes sense without the people who make it possible: just like the communities we run, the blogs people write, they are meaningless without the people that read it, comment them and contribute to them by participating in the conversation” “I’m honored and I hove than one or two years from now you’ll have a really hard time picking between hundreds and hundreds of people who have growth in the advocates community”

You can listen to the recorded podcast here

The 2012 edition of our No Sugar Added Poestry Contest opens Friday, April 6 and we’re waiting for your submissions.

In 2010, the TuDiabetes community TOGETHER wrote an amazing and unique poetry book to help us all better understand what it is life with diabetes. The dream of one of our members became a reality, and we joined forces to create something beautiful.

Today, we are launching a new No-Sugar Added® Poetry Contest on TuDiabetes, to keep our artistic juices flowing, and continue to celebrate our lives touched by diabetes, with their ups and downs.

For more details on how to participate, read this blog post on TuDiabetes.

Donate here

Dear TuDiabetes Family,

5 years ago, Manuel (Manny) decided to create TuDiabetes because he saw a problem: too many people, like him, were feeling alone living their life with diabetes. Since then, a lot of great things have happen to our community… still, there is so much more we need to do in order to reach even more people who still feel isolated with this condition. And, for this to happen, each and everyone of us have an important role to play

When I look back at all the great things we have accomplished together, I renew my hope that the day will come when NO PERSON TOUCHED BY DIABETES WILL EVER FEEL ALONE. Today, we are a family of more than 23 thousand, imagine that! If each of us donate at least $5 we will get to our fundraising goal in no time. Think about it, just skip the morning coffee, and together we can keep working towards a better future for our community (or,should I say, our family).

We at the Diabetes Hands Foundation (and TuDiabetes) envision a future where every PWD has the right outlets (from art to poetry, from exercising to writing a blog or adding photos). Our programs represent opportunities to share and benefit from the great experience of connecting with others alike. Simple and powerful, true to our hearts.

We only have until the end of this week to reach our goal. Today, we need your support to continue to thrive, grow and improve our work in the Diabetes Hands Foundation.

To Celebrate TuDiabetes Birthday, give us 5! Or make a wish and give us more… We are counting on YOU

Sincerely,

Andreina D.

DHF Co-founder and Creative Director (also, happen to be Manny’s wife

In case you’re wondering where are these funds going to go, here are some words from Manny

Fair question: What will the $20K be used for?

by Manny Hernandez

I received a very fair question (which in hindsight, we should have addressed as part of the campaign) in connection with our current fundraising campaign, where we’re seeking to raise $20,000 before the en of March. A member of the community asked me:

In review of the $20k that the Diabetes Hand Foundation is looking to raise, I’m curious how the funds are planned to be used? It would make giving a little easier.V

If I type a note like this, I’m curious how many more have had the same thought and did nothing about it. I thought it would be a good idea to share with the whole community the reply I sent out, in case there are more of you who share the same question:

The funds for the campaign are not earmarked (unless you, as a donor want to designate your donation for a specific use). When we receive non-earmarked donations, here’s what happens with them:

* For every dollar donated to Diabetes Hands Foundation, 78.5 cents go towards making our Programs possible for the benefit of people touched by diabetes, 18 cents are spent in Management and Administration, and 3.5 cents go towards Fundraising efforts (such as this very type of fundraising campaign). You can read more into the past use of funds on our most recent Annual Report, covering May 1, 2010 – April 31, 2011 (our Fiscal Year will be changing starting January 2013, when we will shift to a calendar year-based Fiscal Year.)

* As we move forward, the key areas we are focusing on are:

1) TuDiabetes (in English) and EsTuDiabetes (in Spanish): our two social networks, that serve nearly 40,000 registered members and almost 200 thousand non-registered visitors every month. Thanks to the two social networks, all these people no longer feel alone in their lives with diabetes and they can connect with and learn from others like themselves.

2) Big Blue Test: a program that emphasizes the importance of physical activity for diabetes management. In the past two years, more than 10,000 people have done the Big Blue Test. As a result, just as many people with diabetes in need have received life-saving help in the form of insulin, diabetes supplies and education.

3) Diabetes Advocates: this program serves as a platform for connecting individuals and organizations that have taken a leadership role in improving the world for people touched by diabetes. Members of the program (more than 100 project in 2012) are individuals and organizations that have taken a leadership role in improving the world for people touched by diabetes (BTW, 2012 membership applications for Diabetes Advocates is open until this Sunday).

4) DHF Seeds: a fund to foster and support forward-thinking ideas to empower, connect and inform people touched by diabetes. We launched this program in 2012 to support creative ideas from members of the diabetes community focused on making a better life with diabetes possible, by providing them with an outlet and the necessary resources to help take them to the “next level” (applications to DHF Seeds are restricted to Diabetes Advocates members and US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofits; applications close at 5 pm PDT, Monday, April 2, 2012). In short, rather than looking at the disease, Diabetes Hands Foundation seeks to understand the people living with diabetes and gives them the outlets to share ideas and experiences.

Don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any additional questions whatsoever.

Also, a beautiful and moving post written by a member of our community, Donna H:

Just a Little Can Do So Much

I am reaching out to the community in a personal and heartfelt plea for each member of this community to donate to the latest fund drive — even a few dollars can do so much. I have had the privilege in my new role as a Board member to see at a deeper level the important programing DHF offers. I have also seen first hand the amount of funding it takes to keep these programs running and develop new programs.

This community experiences first hand the benefit of that funding — because some of that funding is used to keep this site going. Please, let’s work together to ensure that Tudiabetes can keep moving forward.

I am certain that every member here longs for the day that we will see a cure for diabetes. But until that day comes, one of the strongest resources we have to managing our disease and the many personal challenges that it brings is each other. DHF, through TuDiabetes and its other programs has given us that resource — united us, given us the support of community, and even fostered what I refer to as “forever” types of friendships. You’re on the site now — you know how important it is. Please, help DHF keep it going with your donation.

There is a lot that DHF is doing in addition to TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes. Manny has posted a great link summarizing what your money will support. I also urge you to take a look at www.diabeteshandsfoundation.org to learn more about the programs. A personal favorite is DHF Seeds — check it out.

As we have bonded as a community here, let’s bond to keep the community going by each of us donating what we can.

DHF has made my life with diabetes a much better one. I thank everyone here for that!