Celebrating our Growth!

August 19, 2008

Good Day, Ladies! I hope you have experienced a wonderful week. Each and every week has become increasingly exciting for me and everyone involved with DiabetesSisters! In fact, now we often find ourselves calling each other and saying, “Can you believe it!?!?!?” Those moments are priceless. The fact that we are achieving these accomplishments and sharing these priceless moments --as a group of women with diabetes-- is extremely exhilarating! So, this week, I want to include everyone involved with DiabetesSisters in the celebration—from those who visit the website to those who volunteer with the organization to those who manage essential functions of the organization. It is extremely important that all of us acknowledge and celebrate our small accomplishments on the way to our ultimate goal (of uniting all 123 million women with diabetes worldwide).

First, we can get really excited about the latest facts and figures! Already this year (since launching on Jan. 28, 2008), DiabetesSisters has welcomed over 6010 women with diabetes from 141 different countries. Wow! We also have a vibrant team of 45 volunteers throughout the US. There are currently 420 registered members of the DiabetesSisters community and we have fulfilled 82 Diabetes Buddy requests throughout the world! Pretty Impressive, heh!?!?! Go ahead, jump up and down, pat yourself on the back! (I am right now!)

As the organization continues to grow at this exponential rate, it is extremely important to the management team that DiabetesSisters NOT feel like a big organization that is out of touch with reality or its members. In order to accomplish this goal, we must find ways to make smaller communities locally and on the web. I am pleased that we ALREADY have volunteers in place doing that!

It is with great excitement that I announce our first ‘local’ DS event, planned by a team of DiabetesSisters volunteers. It will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina on Saturday, September 20^th with the purpose of bringing together women with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes to share camaraderie and walk on the diabetes journey together. You can find more information by looking on the home page. We hope to see more events coming to a local community near you! In fact, we have already heard about more plans being implemented in the New Orleans area.

Is there a gathering for women with diabetes in your area? Consider this…How rewarding would it be for you to head up a group of women with diabetes who exemplify the DiabetesSisters values of Respect, Diversity, Encouragement, Collaboration, and Growth??? Come on, take a step out of your comfort zone and help us nurture this “growing child” known as DiabetesSisters!! Every woman, including you, has needed the support of another woman with diabetes at some point in her life.

I look forward to hearing from you!!!!

Until next week….