329,040 minutes, 329,040 moments so dear. 329,040 minutes —
How do you measure, measure volunteers?
In smileys, in tears shed, in counsel, in cups of coffee.
In units, in carb counts, in laughter, in strife.
In 329,040 minutes – how do you measure DHF volunteers?*
Sometimes my job asks me to do things that are kind of impossible.
Recently I was working on a grant application that asked how much our volunteers contribute to the Diabetes Hands Foundation. How do I begin to do that? With the Care Team / Comité de bienvenida y apoyo who personally welcome every new member? We have more than 50,000 registered members now. Or do I talk about the Administrators / Administradores who keep the conversation going—even if that means chatting with someone for more than an hour while that person works his or her way down from a high or up from a low? What about our board members who contribute not just their time, but their professional expertise? That doesn’t even get to the person who wrote the iPhone app for last year’s Big Blue Test or all the people who did a Live Interview…
It’s a poor measure, but the best I could do was estimate the total number of hours our volunteers contributed. Approximately 30 people volunteered regularly over the last year. All together our volunteers gave 5484 hours of their lives—or 329,040 minutes.
That amounts to 2.74 FTE, almost three more full time employees.
According to an article in the Nonprofit Quarterly all that time translates into $121,415.75.
All these numbers tell us that our volunteers gave a lot, but they don’t really reflect the true impact and value of their efforts. For that we need a different kind of measure.
How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love…
*With apologies to Jonathan Larson, composer of RENT
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Diabetes Hands Foundation has always relied on partners and advisors to increase its understanding of the diabetes space, in order to better serve people touched by diabetes. Today this is as true as ever, as we proudly announce the expansion of our Advisory Board.
Historically a smaller group of very committed folks, the Board of Advisors of Diabetes Hands Foundation has grown to welcome 22 amazing men and women to provide guidance to DHF leadership, serve as public ambassadors for Diabetes Hands Foundation, and help us forge new relationships in the diabetes community (in alphabetical order):
1. Henry Anhalt, DO – Senior Medical Director, Medical Diabetes, Sanofi North America
2. Carla Briceño – Vice President and Co-Founder, Bixal
3. John L. Brooks, III – President and CEO, Joslin Diabetes Center
4. Cesar Castro – Director of Social Strategy Consulting, Lithium Technologies
5. Leonor Corsino, MD, MHS – Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition, Duke University
6. Luis Carlos Diaz – VP Corporate Development, De La Riva Group
7. Beatriz Dominguez – Diabetes Advocate, CrankyPancreas.com
8. Steven V. Edelman, MD – founder and director, Taking Control of Your Diabetes (TCOYD)
9. Robert Geho – co-founder and CEO, Diasome Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
10. Riva Greenberg – Diabetes Advocate, Diabetes Stories
11. Jeff Hitchcock – president and founder, Children with Diabetes, Inc.
12. Luis Fernandez-Luque, Ph.D. – eHealth researcher, Northern Research Institute
13. Richard MacManus – founder and former editor-in-chief, ReadWriteWeb.com
14. Keith McGuinness – co-founder, President and CEO, CalorieKing Wellness Solutions, Inc.
15. Peter Nerothin – President and Founder, Insulindependence
16. Anne L. Peters, MD – Director, USC Clinical Diabetes Programs
17. William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDE – CEO and Founder, Behavioral Diabetes Institute
18. Jody Ranck, DrPH – Author of Connected Health: How Mobiles, Cloud and Big Data Will Reinvent Healthcare
19. Gary Scheiner, MS, CDE – owner and Clinical Director, Integrated Diabetes Services
20. Kerri Sparling – Diabetes Advocate, SixUntilMe.com
21. Amy Tenderich – Diabetes Advocate, DiabetesMine.com
22. Hope Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDE, BC-ADM – registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, consultant and freelance writer, Hope Warshaw Associates, LLC
We are deeply thankful to all these individuals for selflessly supporting Diabetes Hands Foundation with their guidance and input, as we continue to work towards a world where nobody with diabetes ever feels alone.
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Above is a photo of Diabetes Hands Foundation’s own Manny Hernandez with the stars of the Diabetes Co-Stars Video, “Strength in Numbers.”
In case you haven’t heard the news yet, there is a new video making it’s way through the Diabetes Online Community called “Strength in Numbers” brought to you by Sanofi US and Actress Elizabeth Perkins.
The film, produced by Elizabeth and her ‘co-star’ and husband Julio Macat, features her diabetes story as well as two other inspirational stories from the 2012 Diabetes Co-Stars casting call contest – best friends Amanda Bauer and Anne Casey from New York, and father-daughter duo Eugenio and Naiomi Rivera from Texas. In the documentary, you will see themes of friendship, family, care, self-management and more. It is a truly moving piece that deserves a watch.
PLUS! As if a documentary about diabetes alone isn’t awesome enough.. Sanofi US has agreed to double their supporting donation of $10,000 to the Diabetes Hands Foundation when the documentary reaches 10,000 views!
Sanofi US and Golden Globe and Emmy nominated actress Elizabeth Perkins proudly premiered the Diabetes Co-Stars documentary, “Strength in Numbers,” at the American Diabetes Association Expo in Los Angeles, CA. The photo above is from the event.
The Diabetes Co-Stars featured were selected because of their empowering stories of dedication and support, with Amanda and Anne giving back to their community by spearheading support groups for youth living with diabetes, and Eugenio and Naiomi guiding one another through their daily diabetes management.
Please take a moment to view the movie at DiabetesCostars.com and also welcome our very own movie star member Mandy Bauer who was highlighted in this film with her best friend Anne Casey.
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The Diabetes Hands Foundation and Diabetes Advocates Program is proud to announce and congratulate the members of DA who were granted scholarships to attend diabetes conferences in 2013!
Thanks to a generous grant from Novo Nordisk, in 2013 we were able to award eight scholarships:
Three Scholarships were awarded for the ADA 73rd Scientific Sessions in Chicago, IL: Congratulations to Benett Dunlap, Kelly Kunik, and Tim Brand
One scholarship was awarded for the Children With Diabetes Friends for Life Conference in Orlando, FL:
Congratulations to Christel Aprigliano
Two scholarships were awarded for the AADE 13th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA:
Congratulations to Mila Ferrer and Sara Nicastro
and
Two Scholarships were awarded for the TCYOD conference in San Diego, CA:
Congratulations to Moira McCarthy and Cristina Chanteloup
Diabetes Advocates is a program of the Diabetes Hands Foundation, that connects Diabetes advocates, helps them work together, and pools their resources to help people with Diabetes everywhere. We envision a world where everyone who wishes to advocate for people with Diabetes can connect with other like-minded advocates and get the support they need to help people with Diabetes.
We want to thank everyone who applied this year. It was very difficult to make selections. We look forward to meeting the scholarship winners at the conferences and for another year of connecting and engaging diabetes leaders!
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El Centro Nacional de Prevención de Enfermedades Crónicas y Promoción de la Salud en el Estados Unidos encontró que a partir de 2002-2009, el 11,8% de los hispanos mayores de 20 años, que viven en los EU, viven con diabetes diagnosticada.
¡Estamos muy emocionados de anunciar que la comunidad de EsTuDiabetes ha logrado un gran meta: hemos llegado a 20,000 miembros! Nos sentimos afortunados de servir a un gran grupo de personas afectadas por la diabetes, y vamos a seguir trabajando hasta que nadie con diabetes se siente solo. Nuestra misión es mantener un lugar donde las personas afectadas por la diabetes pueden conectarse, participar y sentirse facultado como parte de comunidad de la diabetes.
__________________________________________________________________________________The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion found that from 2002-2009, 11.8% of Hispanics over the age of 20, living in the United States, were living with diagnosed diabetes.
We are very happy to announce a benchmark reached! There are now more than 20,000 members in the EsTuDiabetes community (our social network in Spanish). We feel lucky to serve such a grand group of people touched by diabetes and we will continue to work until no one with diabetes feels alone. It is our mission to hold a place where people touched by diabetes can go to connect, engage, and feel empowered by an with the greater diabetes community.
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A few weeks ago two mothers of children with type 1 diabetes, started a petition asking the heads of ADA, NIH, and IDF to change the names of type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Seeing the level of depth in the arguments in the petition, I know that a lot of time and energy went into it, so I really respect it. But personally, I do not agree with it, with all due respect to Jamie and Jeanette (who started it) and to the people that have supported it.
Our friend Amy Tenderich made some excellent points on a DiabetesMine post yesterday, which we highly recommend you read. She presents both sides of the debate in a balanced way and stated her position: “I just don’t see the value of investing our efforts, time and money (yes, renaming incurs costs) in creating descriptive, scientific names for a cause we’re trying to make easier for the public to embrace, rather than more difficult.”
I agree with Amy and I also don’t believe this effort (if successful) will foster a harmonious relationship between the type 1 and type 2 diabetes communities. If anything it would open up a deeper divide.
Increasingly, the science is showing us MORE and MORE genetic elements that connect to type 2 diabetes and its risk factors. More people with type 2 diabetes evolve from taking oral meds (plus diet and exercise) to being on insulin. As they do, their lives with diabetes and the challenges they live with become more similar to the ones faced by those with type 1 diabetes and LADA.
I don’t like to criticize an idea without offering an alternative. The alternative I propose is that we look at the successful experiences of the past 30 years, from the HIV/AIDS and Breast Cancer communities, to see what they have done that has resulted in these diseases getting 72 times and 60 times more biomedical research funding than diabetes (both types combined).
Source: The Fair Foundation
Back in the 80′s, people who were HIV/AIDS positive and negative joined together, because the stigma was affecting all of them. I recommend that everyone touched by diabetes watches the documentary “How To Survive a Plague“, so we can all get a sense of the unique challenges that this community faced and how they overcame them.
You may say: “HIV/AIDS is so different from diabetes. Diabetes is not contagious. There’s no point in comparing ourselves.” I would argue that a majority of people with diabetes live in the DIABETES CLOSET, and because of this, WE as a diabetes community, are in the DIABETES CAVE… we’re not being seeing enough, all types of diabetes are not getting enough exposure, visibility, and deserved attention.
So, instead of focusing on changing names, let’s unite, learn the lessons from the other communities that have earned the level of visibility that they have today, and turn diabetes from a cause to a movement.
I hope you will join this invitation to do justice to all of us, and see diabetes receive the level of financial support and awareness it needs and deserves. It won’t happen if we don’t join and come out of this cave together! I want to leave you with a video we did back in 2009, inviting all people touched by diabetes to learn from each other and find common ground.
– Manny Hernandez, President of Diabetes Hands Foundation (living with LADA since 2002)
Photo credit: Neils Photography
We are wrapping up our annual spring fundraising campaign and we want to take a moment to recognize a diabetes superstar who has gone many extra miles to make TuDiabetes a better place. Barbara, this is for you.
At the Diabetes Hands Foundation, we work to connect, engage and empower people touched by diabetes. Barbara is an example of a woman who is connected, engaged, and empowered in the diabetes community. She is a gleaming model of inspiration to others. She shares her experiences, her sympathy, her stories, and her time towards making TuDiabetes a welcoming environment. We are incredibly humbled by her dedication and desire to make a difference in the Diabetes Online Community. And Guess what? … Her involvement in TuDiabetes extends behind the scenes, too. She is one woman, making a huge impact.
What Barbara teaches us beyond the scope of her effort, is that even a single person can be a catalyst for change in the Diabetes Online Community. A single person can influence and inspire many others to share their stories, which in turn will help someone else cope with diabetes. There is a powerful ripple effect, that each of us has the capacity to start. We can learn from Barbara, that right from our own home, sitting at our own computers, we can help people touched by diabetes who before felt alone. You can change a persons life by bringing them into the community.
This is what we are asking you… Help us reach out and find more people touched by diabetes who are feeling alone. Together, we can provide access to resources and support that have the potential to improve their lives. Help us grow toward our mission to connect, engage, and empower people touched by diabetes everywhere in the world.
There are many ways to help. You can invite people you meet to TuDiabetes and/or EsTuDiabetes. You can offer your support directly to a friend. You can make a donation.
As Yoda once said, “Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size… you should not. For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. …You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes.”
Thank you Yoda for your words that remind us that the Force is within us, and thank you Barbara for being such a dedicated member of our team at the Diabetes Hands Foundation. TuDiabetes is a better place because of you. And lastly, but equally important, thank you community members and passerbys for doing what you can to grow the diabetes community. We need you. We need you to make this work and to extend our reach.
So far, we have raised $11,161, only $2,839 short of our goal. Please consider doing what you can to support the work the Diabetes Hands Foundation and volunteers like Barbara have done and will continue to do. Help us create a world where no one with diabetes feels alone.
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Kerri Sparling is a Diabetes Super Star. Nearly all of us in the DOC have been impacted by her words in some way, be it through her humor or personal stories. Kerri is a Diabetes Advocate and an inspiration to keep working hard to stay healthy. Below is a message she wrote and shared with us. We are honored to work along side Kerri in the Diabetes Online Community and beyond to create a world where people with diabetes do not feel alone. Here is Kerri’s message:
My name is Kerri Sparling, I have type 1 diabetes, and I have been blogging about diabetes since 2005 at SixUntilMe.com.
I was diagnosed as a kid, and for much of my life, I didn’t know anyone else who was living with type 1 diabetes. Even though my friends and family have always been very understanding, and supportive, I always felt kind of alone when it came to all the diabetes stuff.
This is why the diabetes community, both online and off, means so much to me. Back in 2005, there were just a few voices talking about life with diabetes online. But now? Now there are SO many people telling their stories, supporting one another, and making a difference, and communities like TuDiabetes really help connect people with diabetes with one another.
All these people understand what it’s like to live with diabetes every single day, and together, we’re there for one another. Being part of a community like TuDiabetes makes the stormy spots with diabetes easier to weather, and when things are going well, there are so many people I can celebrate with who really understand.
Connecting with others makes a difference in my health, on every single level. So as we celebrate the 6th anniversary of TuDiabetes, I invite you to make a donation to Diabetes Hands Foundation (the nonprofit that runs TuDiabetes and the people who came up with that cute little TuD character that photobombed my pic), so they can continue to make a difference in the lives of many more people touched by diabetes.
- Kerri
Thank you!
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High blood sugar? Insulin? Huh? Do I have diabetes?
Nope, it’s just temporary from the drugs you’re taking. Here’s a fixed dose, call us if you go over 400.
OK…
That was my first 9 months with ‘high blood sugar’. The next couple of years I was taken off insulin, diagnosed with T2, and put on oral medication. NO control, misery, and no one I knew could give me any input. I knew I was doing something wrong! Next was oral medication with a sliding scale; not much better.
Then… I found TuDiabetes when googling for SOME kind of insight into my ‘mess’.
Satori is a Zen Buddhist word that means “acquiring of a new point of view in our dealings with life and the world”, or simply “enlightenment”. It perfectly describes what happened to me when I found the TuDiabetes family. Within an hour of joining, I had messages on my page welcoming me. I explored the discussions and blogs, and discovered that there were people with diabetes who had control, weren’t miserable, weren’t floundering. People who really got it – I was no longer alone.
Over the course of the next few months, I began to suspect that I was not T2, but T1. With help from the community in many areas (diet, exercise, stories of personal experiences, etc.), I finally achieved better control. A year ago I finally had labs done that determined that I am T1 (LADA). I’m sure that without TuDiabetes, I’d still be miserable and floundering. This community literally gave me the tools/information I needed to get my life back with diabetes. The information, compassion, caring and support we find on TuDiabetes doesn’t cease to amaze me. We are a truly unique community.
In 2012, TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes welcomed 3 million unique visitors – 3 million people from around the world given the opportunity for support from a community where they would not be alone with diabetes. TuDiabetes has grown to over 27,000 members in 6 years. You might have seen little ‘TuD’ floating around the site. He’s not a PWD, but has family and friends all over the world, with every flavor of diabetes. TuD is 6 years old this month. We are celebrating his birthday with our 6th anniversary fundraising campaign. Our ‘family’ pays it forward every day on the site by contributing to discussions, writing blogs, and hanging out in the chat room.
It also takes cash to keep Diabetes Hands Foundation, TuDiabetes and EsTuDiabetes running, and growing. Whether you can afford an ongoing monthly contribution of $20, or a one-time contribution of $10, please consider supporting our ‘family’ with a cash donation this month.
Let’s each do what we can to keep our community thriving and growing so it continues to be available to us and those who will be joining us.
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This is TuD. He just turned 6 years old and wants to share something with you:My name is TuDiabetes, but people call me TuD for short.
I have type 3 diabetes. That means I have a loved one with diabetes. Actually, I have LOTS of people in my family with type 1, type 2, LADA… all types of diabetes!
My sister EsTuDiabetes, my cousins Big Blue Test and Diabetes Advocates, and I have seen our family grow in the past few years. We’ve become friends with TONS of people from around the world that hang out with us every day.
We have lots that we talk about and everyone helps each other, no matter the time of day. It’s so cool, and it makes me feel full of hope for the future and all the amazing things we can do TOGETHER!
Guess what? This month, I turned 6 years old! For my birthday I don’t want any toys or games. What I want is for you to make a donation to Diabetes Hands Foundation so they can grow my family even more.
Diabetes Hands Foundation helps 300 people with every $600 that it gets (can you believe that?). It would be AWESOME if you could afford that much, but if you can’t, maybe you can help 30 people for $60 or 3 people for $6. Every person counts!
You can donate by going to this page: TuD turns 6!, or you can mail your donation to Diabetes Hands Foundation, 1962 University Ave. #1, Berkeley, CA 94704.
Thank you SO MUCH for making this the BEST birthday I’ve EVER had!
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