National Diabetes Awareness Month is over, but it’s never too late to Unite Behind the Blue Circle for diabetes advocacy!
We’re counting our Blue Circle campaign as a success, for the following reasons:
- over 3,300 people signed the petition calling on all major U.S. diabetes associations, including the ADA, JDRF, and AADE, to recognize and help promote the Blue Circle as the universal symbol for diabetes awareness. Our parent company Alliance Health Networks will be forwarding these signatures in print form to key leaders in those orgs within the week.
As a reminder, here’s what we’re urging them to do:
- display the Blue Circle logo prominently on their home pages, with an explanation of its meaning;
- add Blue Circle items to their gift store items, such as T-shirts, mugs, and bumper stickers;
- use it as the overarching symbol whenever there are multi-organization alliances;
- use it as the overarching symbol for National Diabetes Awareness Month and associated outreach; and
- display the Blue Circle prominently at their annual meetings and professional events.
- Medscape ran a pretty in-depth article (which we had a hand in 
) about the Blue Circle and IDF’s World Diabetes Day campaign. This is a great channel for making healthcare professionals aware of these efforts.
- NPR did a nice post on their health blog about how using a universal symbol for diabetes, like the pink ribbon for breast cancer, could potentially make our cause an equally familiar “household name.”
Over at DiabeticConnect, we selected five random winners from the folks who signed the petition. Each of these lucky advocates will receive a collection of Blue Circle wrist bands and lapel pins to share with their friends and family:
C. Wilson, LaFollette, TN
G. Kerr, Odenville, AL
E. McKoy, North Carolina, NC
J. Bates, South Charleston, WV
J. Smith Jr, Chicago, IL
Congrats!
On top of that, we here at the ‘Mine have been pushing IDF to help us make more Blue Circle merchandise available for sale here in the U.S. Unable to obtain official sanction from them, we’ve decided to “go rogue” and offer our own version of non-branded Blue Circle awareness items via CafePress, like this iPhone cover:
Our new Cafe Press shop offers a variety of these “Ask me what it means!” Blue Circle items, including T-shirts, a coffee mug, an apron, and a gym bag. All proceeds will be forwarded to IDF, so go do some Holiday Shopping, please!
In addition, we’ve been really happy to see other patients all around the country launching their own flavor of Blue Circle campaigns, for example:
Lee Ann Thill’s World Diabetes Day Postcard Exchange. What a fun way to connect with PWDs around the world! Here’s the postcard I got from my new PWD pen pal Susannah, from Australia:
Thanks, Lee Ann!
Passionate D-Mom Diane Pridmore, who along with two other D-Moms has just launched something called the Blue Heel Society. Their mission statement is “to deliver a clear, united voice via organized assembly within our own affiliation, and also at local and national gatherings,
events, conventions, and other venues, helping to dispel myths, offer education and to champion the needs of people affected by diabetes.”
Now we’re not sure that high heels work for everyone, but we love these ladies’ message of a clear, united voice for diabetes awareness, and using Blue as the theme color!
It all comes down to this: Know Thy Illness Symbol, if you want others to recognize and act on it, too.
btw, just last week on Dec. 1, it was World AIDS Day, and boy, was that all over the mainstream media with celebrity spokes-folks Bono and Alicia Keys appearing on Good Morning America, The Daily Show with John Stewart, and more. Wouldn’t we like to see a superstars video like this one for our cause next year?
On that last note, I thought the EXACT same thing. Why did so many of my facebook friends post about World Aids Day and not World Diabetes Day??
And the deluge of breast cancer pink ribbons goes on for months on end. Their “awareness month” lasts most of the year, drowning out everything else.
I love the cafepress site, but for those of us who don’t own an iPhone, is there an option for an iPad 1 / iPad 2 cover? Thanks!
@Sarah – there is now! I just added them! Thanks for alerting me
where can i get the blue circle pin
Thanks so much for the shoutout! (Blue Heel Society). Your support is much appreciated!
Now. I have An andriod, I want a phone cover!
Loving the circle, now if only I could walk into my local Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens (you get the picture!) and see an EXPLOSION of blue circles on everything. THAT would be awesome!
Totally want the phone cover!
This is so exciting! I want to find some fabric with blue circles for my home-based craft business!
Love love love!
Love the Blue Circle!!!
Love the blue circle merch … I’d love to see some t-shirts!
TuDiabetes has them.
I want a simple necklace with a blue circle. I would wear it all the time!
oh yes this blue circle thing is soooo exciting. how intelligent and motivating to apply meaning to simple shapes and colors, and then to actually believe it is important! Wow!
I got a tattoo on my forearm with the diabetes butterfly that look like some of the designs that Cafe Press has on some of there products I specifically put it there so people would ask question. I try and inform and tell my sons story. I think the Blue Circle is awesome!! I proudly wear my grey ribbon charm everyday and would love to find a blue circle necklace also.
was just reading the article in Diabetes Forecast -Marc 2012 and saw the mention of the Diabetes Postcard Project-had not seen it before-it led me to this website-am so glad-would like to be more involved-I’ve had diabetes since I was 19 am now 61-have had a pump for the last 6 yrs-so glad-makes life much better and easier to cope with-love the new circle-hope to find something I can use to advertise it-have lots more I could say but I will stop now-thanks-Anna.
[...] could Google possibly ignore such a pressing and widespread topic?! And hey, we’ve got the Blue Circle to illustrate our cause, [...]