12 of 12 – JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

This year, the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes landed on a 12 of 12 day!  So you’re getting both at once today!

The walk was great, with gorgeous weather and an amazing turnout!  My husband and daughter and I were very proud to be a part of it!  Together, we were able to raise just over $2,800, bringing our 4-year total to almost $9,800!  We are blessed with very generous friends and family and we thank everyone who supported us through donations to this important cause!

And now…on with the 12.

12 of 12 was created by Chad Darnell (you can find his website and a bunch of 12 of 12 links here), and has bloggers worldwide taking 12 photos throughout the day on the 12th day of each month.  

If you missed them, you can check out my 12 of 12 for previous months here!

1. Me and The Kid, ready to go!

2. Opening ceremonies at the Lyric Theatre at Assiniboine Park.  It’s hard to tell by the picture, but the crowd is actually doing a group warm-up. 

3. With so many kids in the group, this couple really caught my eye.  I wondered if they were just park-goers who happened to get caught up in the wave of JDRF walkers, but they were actually there for the walk.  Early on they were given the option to walk a shorter route (instead of the 5km or 7km option the rest of us were given).  I didn’t see what they decided to do.  Either way, I’m impressed. 

4. This gives you some idea of how many people were walking, but keep in mind that we were approximately in the middle of the group, so there were about this many behind us too.  The guy on the very right edge of the picture in the hat and sunglasses is my walking partner (and husband).

5. When the walk was over, we were treated to lunch and entertainment by these guys.  They were actually quite good – especially when they rocked a Tragically Hip song.

6. Bouncy castle – prairie style.

7. One of the incentive prizes we got.  It’s insulated, so I’m assuming it’s a drink cooler.  Could come in handy…

8. Most massive jewellry snarl ever.  Scissors were required, unfortunately.

9. My new deck chair from Canadian Tire.  It’s so comfy! 

10.  Did a quick bit of garden-planting in the late afternoon.  Anyone know what kind of seeds these are?  (Hint:  They’re asparagus seeds.)

11.  Pork roast on the BBQ for supper.  I love summer!

12. Me…ready to post my 12 of 12 at our very messy desk.  (Say “hi” to Dwight Schrute!)  And that brings you up to now! 

Walking in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

Once again, my husband and my daughter and I will be walking in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk to Cure Diabetes, and today I’m asking for your support. 

This is a particularly important year for us as 2011 marks the 30-year anniversary of my diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes.  In the last few years, we’ve really felt the impact of this disease as we’ve dealt with my pregnancy as well as the simultaneous advancements in my retinopathy.  At the same time, we hope and pray that our daughter’s pancreas doesn’t follow in the footsteps of her mother’s.

Please consider supporting us as we walk on June 12^th this year.  Or consider walking yourself!  Or consider supporting the JDRF outside of the walk.  No matter which way you support the JDRF, your donation will help bring us one step closer to the prevention and cure of Type 1 Diabetes. 

To pledge me online, click here:  https://jdrfca.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donate.start&destination=P&eventID=881&participantID=98623

If the link above doesn’t work for you, you can enter my name here:  http://jdrfca.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.donate

If you’d like to participate in the walk yourself, click here for Canada and here for the U.S.

And if you’d just like to make a donation to the JDRF outside of the walk, click here for Canada and here for the U.S.

(Note:  When I donated, I was getting an error on the page until I included a decimal point and the amount of cents in the donation box.  E.g. $50.00 instead of $50.)

If you would prefer to donate via cash or cheque, you can email me at mewithd@gmail.com .

 Thank you!

P.S. The walk is on a 12 of 12 day, so be sure to check back for pictures!

Bethany Meets Her Mascot Crush

I have a thing for mascots.  Not a “thing”…just a thing.  A G-rated, childlike….thing.  

Even though I’m 31 years old, I still refuse to believe that mascots are simply underpaid, over-energetic, over-heated human beings inside outrageously colourful and awkward costumes.  That truth is at odds with my need to clap and giggle when I see them, and it’s definitely at odds with my need to hug and by hugged by them.  Maybe I’m making up for lost experiences of my childhood when I was too afraid of mascots to enjoy them, but whatever the reason, I now LOVE them!

My favourite of all mascots is the Green Drop.  Those of you not from West/Central Canada probably do not know who the Green Drop is.  Green Drop is a landscaping company that has an office in my hometown.  For whatever reason (advertising, I suppose) they have a mascot who is just that…a green drop.  He can be seen at various local events, but I first developed my mascot crush on him when I saw him at a Winnipeg Blue Bombers football game.  The official Bombers mascots, Buzz and Boomer, were picking on him as usual and I felt bad for him.  Plus he was just so terribly cute!

So, imagine my surprise when, at the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes on Sunday, I spied out of my little eye….something that was GREEN!  Of course, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a photo opp, since our team captain had her camera with her.  So, here, courtesy of the lovely Catherine MacDonald of the Maestro Project, is a picture of me with my favourite mascot – the Green Drop.

Me with the Green Drop . . . and some other dude.

Now you may notice a couple of things about this picture.

First, the Green Drop is clearly holding me at arms’ length.  I fear he may have heard of my mascot crush on him and been a bit skeeved.  Truth be told, I’m really not quite sure what Catherine told him to convince him to take a picture with me.  It may have been “This woman is considering leaving her husband for you” (not true) or “My crazy friend is going to make a scene if you don’t pose for this picture” (“crazy” is a strong word).  Regardless, he seems far less happy about posing with me than I was about posing with him.  In fact, with his other hand, he seems to be doing the “Hey, look over there!” in hopes that we’ll all look and he can dash away from us.  I’m a bit disappointed at that.  I was hoping for a full-on mascot hug from him, but clearly I was denied.  I may have to choose a new favourite mascot.

Second, there is another mascot in the picture.  He was not asked to be in the picture.  I don’t know who he is.  The “Go-To” Guy?  I think he had something to do with safety.  Maybe he was the Green Drop’s bodyguard.  Anyway, Go-To-Guy, unlike his friend the Green Drop, was far more willing to snuggle than Mr. Drop.  In fact, he was downright touchy-feely!  It seems that he has the same penchant for people as I have for mascots.  Since I do love mascots, you would think I’d be happy about this, but I was too focused on trying to inch closer to my green friend who, in turn, was focused on pushing me into the arms of another.

So, while I had hoped for a picture of me and my Drop, arms around each other and heads together like long lost buddies, I somehow managed to end up in the middle of a mascot love triangle (still G-rated, people!) that still has me a bit confused.

Walking in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

Yesterday was the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes!  We had a wonderfully sunny day after many days of rain, so it was nice to see the weather finally cooperating!  As usual, I walked as part of Team Maestro, headed up by our faithful team captain, Catherine MacDonald (coordinator of the Maestro Project)! 

I was looking forward to walking with my daughter this year (last year my husband and I didn’t participate because we had just recently become parents and were busy doing the new-baby thing), but as it turned out, she came down with a fever and my husband had to stay home with her.  Oh well….there’s always next year!

With the help of some very generous friends and family, my husband and I were able to raise just over $2000 for the JDRF this year!  We are absolutely thrilled!  I did some quick math yesterday and realized that, in the three years that we have walked (two of which we were joined by my sister-in-law), we have raised almost $7000 for the JDRF!!  Wow!

Seeing numbers like that really makes us feel very lucky!  It is only because of the generosity of those close to us that we are able to do this! 

Diabetes is something that we live with every day.  (Well, I live with it every day, and my husband lives with me every day, so he lives with it every day too.)  Most of the impact of diabetes on our lives is negative – the bloodsugar management frustrations, the tedium of the logging and problem-solving, the endless needles, the frustrating doctors’ appointments, the reliance on imperfect technologies, the self-denial, the consequences of forgetting things, the nypos, the all-too-frequent feelings of guilt, failure and frustration, and (of course) the retinopathy and related laser treatments.  

But every year when we do our donation drive for the JDRF walk, we see something very positive.  We see people pulling together to achieve a common goal of beating this disease - people who have diabetes in their lives and people who don’t but who care about someone who does.  We see how much our friends and family care about us and about a cause that is so important to us.  We see that we’re not alone.

We see love and we see hope.

We feel love…we feel hope.   

Thank you to all of you who donated or who walked (or will be walking at another location later this year).  You are helping the JDRF continue to bring us closer to a cure!

JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

For the past few years, my husband and I have been faithful participants in the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes.  Last year was an exception because we had a brand new baby (who was still in the hospital at that point), but this year we’re back on track.  We’ve just registered and will be starting our own little “donation drive” before long.  (That means, if I have your email address, expect an email in a few weeks!) 

Today I just want to encourage those of you who have diabetes or who love someone with diabetes (me perhaps….? ) to consider either registering for the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes or donating to someone who plans to walk. 

(No, I do not plan to use my blog to unabashedly beg for donations for myself…but you can always do a “Search for Participant” using my name if you feel so inclined…just sayin’.) 

Understandably we all have our preferred charities and preferred charity events and for some of you that may not include the JDRF or the Walk to Cure Diabetes.  If not, I encourage you to get involved with, or donate to, another diabetes-related charity or event. 

We all want to see a cure, and the JDRF is working hard to realize that goal.  Every little bit helps.  Let’s make it happen!

To register or donate in Canada, click here.

To register or donate in the U.S., click here.

For other locations, try here.