November 30, 2010

Diabetes is a disease that doesn’t receive the publicity of cancer or AIDS, but it still affects more than 23 million people in the United States. That’s 7.8% of the population, or one in 13 people.

Do you know someone who has been affected by diabetes? Odds are you do.

I do. I know quite a few people affected by diabetes, actually. But the most prominent one was my mom. She passed away from complications arising from Type 2 diabetes, so it’s definitely a disease that has affected me personally.

Thus, I made sure to include the American Diabetes Association in this year’s 20 Causes, 20 Days project once again. Last year’s ADA volunteer effort taught me a lot about the disease that took my mom’s life, so I made a promise to her and myself that I would include the ADA once again.

Diabetes is the 7^th leading cause of death in the United States. It’s a debilitating disease that can lead to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney disease, neuropathy, amputation, and death. It affects people young and old. Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children, while Type 2 is generally diagnosed at a later age in life.

For more information about diabetes and for statistics, please visit Source: www.diabetes.org

Tonight, we would be helping the ADA contact people who participated in their Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes to get feedback about the race.

I met the volunteers who would be joining me tonight, Sandra and her son Luis, Gerri and her cousin Kristina, and Penny. I know Sandra and Gerri from my working career, and Penny found the project as a result of an interview I did on the radio, specifically NewsTalk 1530 KFBK.

We met up with Jennifer, who is the Manager for Fundraising and Special Events at the ADA, and she briefed us on the Step Out walk. Our tasks tonight were to call the team captains and solicit feedback about the race.

They had more than a thousand people pre-register for this year’s race, and they had more than 300 walkup attendees, so this year was by far their best in terms of attendance. Considering the fact that they’d nearly doubled their fundraising goals from the previous year, it was clear this year’s race was their best yet.

We received our lists and our scripts from Jennifer, and headed off to the individual offices to make our calls. I had the big conference room, and got to work. The very first call I made, I spoke with a doctor who had nothing but great things to say about the event. Little did I know this would be a common theme this evening.

I made about 30 calls over the two hours, and probably spoke to about twelve people total in person. Each of them gushed about the race, with the only consistent complaints being the lines, and the wait, because of the immense walkup crowd.

I spoke with a gentleman for about fifteen minutes in great detail about the need to spread the word about diabetes out to more people. He mentioned how people were well aware of the pink for breast cancer, and red for AIDS, but that diabetes needed its own recognizable campaign.

As we spoke, I remembered how mom dealt with severe tiredness from low blood sugar and had to check her insulin regularly, and despite that being a negative memory on the surface, my thoughts were optimistic in the sense that the more ways we can help raise awareness about how serious diabetes really is, the quicker we can find a way to cure it.

I agreed wholeheartedly with the gentleman’s stance and thought to myself how my little 20 Causes, 20 Days project might just help spread the word that much further.

We all regrouped in the main office once our time was completed. All told, the volunteers and I made an estimated 180 calls on this evening. Everyone had a look on their face like they were satisfied to have been a part of something. I think this was not necessarily because of the phone calls we made, but because we were all affected by diabetes somehow.

Luis and Sandra spoke with Jennifer about setting up volunteer/fundraising events through Luis’ high school. I could see the Luis was getting excited about setting up something that would help others in the process.

I was once a 16-year old, and I know at that age I was nowhere close to thinking about something so generous and worthy. Considering the fact that he had come to tonight’s volunteer event with the skeptical smirk of a teenager, but was leaving with the optimistic glow of someone who was motivated to do something good, I felt like tonight was a great success.

Gerri said “The first person I spoke to on the phone was a team leader and his Reason for doing so is that he was diagnosed with Diabetes a couple of years earlier. He told me about how he learned so much about the disease since he was diagnosed, but also that he wanted to improve his own quality of life and bring awareness to others. It made me think more about Diabetes, because even though I know people that suffer from the effects of Diabetes I wouldn’t say that I know much about it. It made me want to look more into it and take a closer look at how I live my own life.”

American Diabetes Association is always looking for volunteers. From office assistance, to helping organize events, to on-site assistance at various events, you can help spread awareness of this widespread disease.

Tonight, we performed a simple task – calling to thank people for being a part of something worthy. To people who are affected by this disease, that is very worthy in and of itself. Considering the fact that one in 13 people have diabetes, shouldn’t you get involved?

Think about who you know that suffers from diabetes. They could use your help make some time to help with the American Diabetes Association. Everything helps.

VOLUNTEER EVENT UPDATE: There will be another call blitz opportunity on Monday, December 13^th. Pizza will be provided! Email Jennifer at JSimmons@diabetes.org if you’re interested!

American Diabetes Association
916.924.3232
Jennifer Simmons
JSimmons@diabetes.org