Join Us In Celebrating World Diabetes Day 2010

Every year on November 14, we pay homage to everyone living with or caring for someone with diabetes on World Diabetes Day. First celebrated in 2007 following a UN Resolution championed by then-college-student Clare Rosenfeld, the date marks the birthday of Frederick Banting, who was instrumental in the discovery of insulin in 1922. World Diabetes Day engages millions of individuals worldwide in diabetes awareness, education, and advocacy with activities such as walks, sporting events, free screenings for diabetes and its complications, and radio and television programs. Our favorite of all is the World Diabetes Day Monument Challenge – when landmarks around the globe are illuminated in blue, the color of the International Diabetes Federation’s (IDF) diabetes symbol, a circle that signifies life, health, and unity. Last year alone, over 1,000 monuments were lit up worldwide, from village hospitals in India to city halls in the United States. As diabetes prevalence also rises worldwide, the World Diabetes Day campaign hopes to slow the trend with a five-year (2009-2014) emphasis on Diabetes Education and Prevention.

Here in San Francisco, the diaTribe team is sponsoring World Diabetes Day for the fourth straight November 14. We look forward to this event every year – gathering with family, friends, and colleagues to support diabetes awareness, we are reminded of how strong the diabetes community can really be. This year we’ll be lighting up the Metreon shopping center to cap off a daylong celebration in the heart of downtown San Francisco. The day’s activities include live, interactive discussions with members of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the American Diabetes Association on managing and living with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, free bowling at Yerba Buena Gardens, a performance by the local band “Solar Prominence,” and the official kick-off party for CDE Theresa Garnero’s fabulous organization Dance Out Diabetes, an exciting new organization whose mission is to “prevent and manage diabetes through dance and education” in a fun setting for people with or at risk of getting diabetes, their family, and their friends to dance. At the kick-off party and the subsequent monthly sessions around San Francisco (soon to be expanded nationwide), individuals will be able to enjoy both dance instruction and free-form dancing to a wide variety of music genres. Also at the Dance Out Diabetes party, members of the diaTribe staff will be helping rally everyone to take the Big Blue Test – test, exercise for 14 minutes, test again! – to raise awareness of the good that exercise can do us. Finally, following this sure-to-be fun and entertaining dance party, we will catch our breath, stand together, and watch the lighting of the Metreon.

We invite everyone in the Bay Area to swing by downtown San Francisco and join us in celebrating World Diabetes Day on Sunday, November 14. We thank sponsors Abbott Diabetes Care and J&J LifeScan, maker of OneTouch blood glucose monitoring systems, as well as co-organizers TuDiabetes and DiabetesMine for helping make this spectacular event happen. And for those of you who can’t make it to the San Francisco Bay Area, we encourage you to take part in activities closer to your own hometown (click here for an updated list of events worldwide). For more up-to-date information on our and others’ plans for World Diabetes Day, follow us on twitter here as well as @bigbluetest and @wdd and @sixuntil me.  ----ST/BK/JS