Untitled Giving Project Update#1

It's been 14 days since I wrote about my want to launch a charitable foundation to provide insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors to children that need but can not afford them. 14 days

A very lot can apparently happen in 14 days...

The Diabetes Online Community has fully embraced my goal and I thank you! Monetary gifts, offers to help and professionals wanting to donate their services have all been pouring in. I've made new connections and had conversations that can only be characterized as uplifting. I've received gifts great enough to pay for the initial paperwork filing and am currently in discussions with an attorney about how to best move forward. I won't stop you from leaving a gift today but I will say that, for the moment, we've reached out initial goal! Please take a moment and reflect on what an amazing place the DOC is, I'm proud to be even a small part of it and I hope you are as well.

• If all goes well I'll be able to announce the name of the future charity very soon. 
• Wonderful offers to guest post on Six Until Me and The Girl with the Portable Pancreas have helped get the word out.
• I'm diligently working at acquiring corporate sponsorship for the charity, having already made my first pitch yesterday. (If your company is interested please reach out)
• I'm currently crafting a mission statement and can not wait to be able to tell you more.

Thank you for being the amazing group of people that you are! Wait until you see what we do when we band together...

I'll be back with more news as soon as I can.

Best,

Scott

Update on 2011-11-22 12:55 by Scott Benner

The 501(c)3 process is moving! More when more is available.

So that was World Diabetes Day?

So that was World Diabetes Day... Good thing I have a Twitter account and this blog or I wouldn't have known. I saw a message on Twitter yesterday saying the same thing. The author wrote that they didn't hear a word on any large media outlet but that Twitter was on fire with diabetes related posts. I found myself agreeing.

Every blogger, website and person whose BG was ever above 120 took the opportunity to announce something yesterday, me included and everyone's exuberance caused a flutter for certain, tweets were flying down my timeline at a furious pace. I spent my entire day keeping up with, managing, posting and responding to things related to World Diabetes Day. I felt great, though a bit exhausted (I may have fallen to sleep on the sofa and not woken up until 4:45 am) and I'd do it all again in a second but my question is, "what did I do?"

Was I only talking to other people who already knew that it was World Diabetes Day? Did our community have a party that only we came to? I'm sure not totally but I'm betting that the answer is, in some part, "yes". It's this nagging feeling that I have that helped me to decide to follow my passion and announce my charitable intentions last week. My overall concern that while we are supporting each other and doing it well, our message may not reach far outside the community or with the same intensity that it does inside the community.

It's a huge and difficult question but I want it answered - How do you get a baseball fan to care about hockey? A serious news junky to care about the Kardashians? Is it possible to get a message to a person that has no interest, connection or concern with a topic without marketing that person to within an inch of their life, thusly ruining the message? I think the answer is "yes" and I'm determined to find a way to do it. 

None of this is to say that the amazing things that go on in the DOC everyday aren't valuable, just the opposite, they are the heart of the DOC but how do we expand? How do I leave a guy who has no connection to type I diabetes feeling what a T1 mom feels when she reads something that I've written. It is possible, I know it. I know in impart because I believe but also because it's happened to me and recently.

We took Arden to see 'Wicked' in New York last week. At the end of the first act the character Elphaba is hovering above the ground having just come to an important realization about herself. The scene ended, the curtain went down and the house lights went up - I was crying. My level of interest going into the show stopped being an issue when I was presented with a well told and interesting story. That is how I see our message about diabetes going wider. We have to stop spouting statistics and saying the same things over and over when we're presented with a larger audience. I know that it's difficult to find new and interesting ways to say the same stuff but it's doable. We need to tell more interesting stories, well.

If only diabetes was a green witch that could sing...

They didn't allow photograph in the theater so here is a picture of Arden surveying New York from the Empire State Building.

"There's nothing you can't do"

Spring Universal Infusion Set - Giveaway

In celebration of World Diabetes Day, Spring Health Solutions has generously allowed me to identify one child that would benefit from receiving a *three year supply of their Spring Universal Infusion Set, at no cost to the child! Spring has also contributed a $250 gift to help me realize my goal of starting a charitable foundation whose focus is putting insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors in the hands of children who want but can not afford them. 

If your child could benefit from a three year supply of the Spring Universal Infusion Set, please complete the form at the link below to be considered. Be sure to read and understand the following details before completing the form.

The details...

The Spring Universal Infusion Set is compatible with the following insulin pumps: Animas One Touch Ping, Roche Accu-Check and Sooil Diabecare IIS.

You must have a doctor's prescription to receive the Infusion Sets and complete a product training with a Spring U.S. representitive.

What's next?

Consider helping the Untitled Giving Project become a reality.

Become a member of Arden's Day to stay up-to-date about future giveaway opportunities.

Complete the form to be considered for the Spring Universal Infusion Set giveaway.

Spread the word about our efforts by using the 'Share Article' link just below or by sharing this link - /main/2011/11/11/spring-universal-infusion-set-give-away.html

The rest...

Arden's Day is not a charity and does not claim to be one. We take no responsibility for your experience with the Spring Universal Infusion Set should you be chosen to receive the three year supply. Arden's Day is not directly giving the winner any products but merely choosing one child that Spring will award the gift to, train in it's use and make delivery of as they see fit. In the event that Spring can not, for any reason, fulfill it's promise to supply the infusion sets. Neither Arden's Day nor it's owner Scott Benner, assumes any responsibility to fulfill this offer. The recipient will be chosen based on many factors, at the discretion of Arden's Day with the primary focus of provided the best clinical outcome possible. If the recipient is unable to accept the gift, a new winner will be chosen. The gift has no cash value and is non-transferable. Recipient must be a U.S. resident.

*"Three year supply" means 450 total infusion sets. 

Update on 2011-11-21 16:54 by Scott Benner

If you've been to this page in the past, you may notice that the requirement for the recipient to be uninsured has been lifted. If you or someone you know has a child in need that can benefit from this gift, please fill out the form and I'll contact you very soon. Best, Scott

Update on 2012-08-02 23:24 by Scott Benner

This giveaway has ended. Look for a follow up story soon.

Thank you for your interest!

Gina Capone's Diabetes Blog Day 2011

I literally have to pick Arden up at school in 45 minutes (we are heading into Manhattan to see Wicked - Arden's birthday gift). I'm packed, the D-Supplies have been triple checked and now I am going to finally have a second to write my contribution to D-Blog Day. 

The blog topic for this year is: Why you feel the Diabetes Online Community is so important? especially to you personally? Give examples of other diabetes involvement may you have, on or offline, how it helped you etc… How do you think “we” as an online community can band together to reach broader audiences to help even more people living with or affected by diabetes.

I am going to answer the last sentence in the prompt only as I am short on time, know that now (as I'm writing) is the first time that I've seen the topic... Which I'm considering a sign after reading it...

This community online, the DOC, has a crazy amount of potential in regards to it's power and influence. It is already a force with it's countless voices but I've found myself wondering, "exactly how loud would all of those voices be if they all were saying the same thing and at the same time?". So I set out to find the answer to my question.

There is immense value in the power of the many telling their individual stories but what if once and a while we united? Could we effect serious change, I believe that we can!

If you believe too please click on this link, put away your fears and embrace the warm glow of hoping with a dreamer. If you do, if we all do, well... maybe we'll look back to today on D-Blog Day 2012 and be able to say that we focused our individual power and changed a few lives for the better.

Find out more about my dream for children and families with type I that want but can't afford insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors. Let's see what this already amazing community of people can do when we speak as one. Thank you for reading - I have to get to Arden's school.......

Leave a comment, share a link, make a gift...

My best,

Scott

Untitled Giving Project: Insulin Pumps & CGMs for kids

It has long been my dream to find a way to give insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors to children that need but can't afford them. Today after two years of research and preparation I am ready to take the first step towards making my dream a reality. 

I hope that you can imagine with me the collective good that would come from lifting just a part of the massive stress that managing a child's type I diabetes brings to a family. My family is lucky enough to have good insurance and the means to pay the out of pocket costs that are associated with these fantastic devices. I feel a grand desire to help the children that aren't as fortunate. I have a plan, an agreement to buy devices at cost and enough enthusiasm to lift my house, I just need one last thing... a little help. My goal is to identify and outfit the first child with a device by the spring of 2012. After that I'm going to keep going until I can't find another child suffering or struggling with multiple daily injections and wishing that they could use an insulin pump. I'm going to keep going until every parent has the peace of mind that comes from knowing that their child's CGM will wake them when blood glucose levels get dangerously low. Until type I is cured - I'm going to make these focuses my personal mission. I have the time, the knowledge, the desire and hope.

If I've ever helped, taught or inspired you please follow this link to find out how you can help me help others.