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Spare a Rose, Save a Child.

Spare a Rose, Save a ChildValentine’s Day is coming up, and we, as a community, have a chance to show some love for people around the globe with diabetes.  A small group of us – Kelly Close, Manny Hernandez, Bennet Dunlap, Adam Brown, Jeff Hitchcock, and I – with the support of some friends at Johnson & Johnson, got together recently to see how the diabetes community could use social media for social good, and a wicked cool and powerful idea was born.  

We want to help the Life for a Child program, sponsored by the International Diabetes Federation, which aims to take “contributions from donors [to] go to established diabetes centers enabling them to provide the ongoing clinical care and diabetes education these children need to stay alive.”  Our idea was to take the typical “dozen roses,” so popular on Valentine’s Day, and save just one rose to spare the life of a child. “Spare a Rose, Save a Child” is simple:  buy one less rose this Valentine’s Day and share the value of that flower with a child with diabetes in the developing world.  Your loved one at home still gets flowers, and you both show some love to someone who needs it.

We also want to raise more awareness for the Life for a Child program, and we hope that our friends in the DOC will help with this effort.


Here’s what you can do to help:

  • The week of February 10 – 16th, please help raise awareness for the Life for a Child program by blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking (is that an official verb? probably not, but it works), etc., about the organization and the Spare a Rose, Save a Child effort.  The earlier we can get the word out about this, the better.
  • If you’d like, you can download an image to use for your post, or host it on your site for the week of Feb 10 – 16th.
  • Please use the URL: http://bit.ly/SpareRoseSaveChild to link to the IDF site.  (This is a short URL we’ve created so we can see how much impact our social media campaign has generated.)  For more information on the Life for a Child program, please check out that link.  
  • Also, if you do decide to post about this effort, would you please leave a comment on this blog post so we can keep track of the posts that were in support of this effort?
  • The hashtag for this effort is #sparearose, should you be feeling Twittery.

This Valentine’s Day, we can both show our affection for loved ones at home and give a little help to those we have some much in common with around the world. It is a simple, caring, but life-changing message.   And it shows that the diabetes online community takes care of one another, both online and off.

Thank you for reading this and for everything you do as part of this community.  Seriously - thank you. 

Update (Borrowing Manny's comment):  Since some of you out there in the DOC have been wondering about this: this idea didn't come to us from the International Diabetes Federation (which is why you won't see the "Spare a Rose, Save a Child" campaign reference on the Life For a Child web site.)

This was an idea that emerged from a group of us at the DOC, to support this worthy cause through our collective power via social media. Let's show our support and save the lives of children with diabetes around the world who otherwise cannot afford their insulin and diabetes care!

Updated:  Here's a link list of sites that are helping raise awareness.  If yours isn't on here, please comment with a link!

Posted by Kerri Sparling on February 9, 2013 05:33 PM |

Comments

Joy.

I think this is such a good idea and I am happy to be part of this effort to share some love. I am in and my post is:
http://www.ydmv.net/2013/02/turn-it-to-11-sparearose.html

I spared a flower and sent IDF its value by paypal already. So I guess I getter get out and buy the other 11 for my much better half.

Posted by: Bennet | February 9, 2013 07:08 PM

I shared via Facebook. What a simple idea, and a great cause. Thanks so much for doing this and for motivating others to get involved!

Posted by: Kara | February 9, 2013 07:45 PM

I will share this on my Facebook account!

Posted by: Andrea | February 9, 2013 08:25 PM

Kerri,

I wrote about Spare A Rose today on Arden's Day and I hope that others take your lead in this noble endeavor. These children may live far from our homes, but their struggle is certainly close to all of our hearts. May we have an sincere impact on this issue and their lives.

Be well!

Scott

http://www.ardensday.com/main/2013/2/9/life-for-a-child.html

Posted by: Scott Benner | February 9, 2013 08:27 PM

I'm on it!

Posted by: Jasmine | February 9, 2013 09:57 PM

Since some of you out there in the DOC have been wondering about this: this idea didn't come to us from the International Diabetes Federation (which is why you won't see the "Spare a Rose, Save a Child" campaign reference on the Life For a Child web site.

This was an idea that emerged from a group of us at the DOC, to support this worthy cause through our collective power via social media. Let's show our support and save the lives of children with diabetes around the world who otherwise cannot afford their insulin and diabetes care!

Posted by: Manny Hernandez | February 9, 2013 10:02 PM

Posted on FB! Save a Rose, spare a child!

Posted by: Amy W | February 9, 2013 10:41 PM

FB'd so far... Great idea!

Posted by: Alecia | February 9, 2013 11:12 PM

All Facebooked and Twittered and blogged! Glad to be a part of such a wonderful idea. http://bit.ly/122NwL1

Posted by: Kate | February 10, 2013 11:27 AM

Great idea! I just donated and shared on Facebook :)

Posted by: Sharon Deegan | February 10, 2013 11:53 AM

I don't blog, but will share on twitter and Facebook.

My husband and I also don't exchange valentine gifts - we do nice things for each other all year long instead.

So no one less rose for me or for him, but a donation was made!

Posted by: Nancy Quinn | February 10, 2013 12:28 PM

Happy to support the cause. riva
http://www.diabetesstories.com/stories_blog/

Posted by: riva | February 10, 2013 01:46 PM

My post went up today: http://portablepancreasgirl.com/2013/02/10/a-valentines-day-gift-beyond-flowers/

And I will be FB'ing and tweeting all this week! Thanks Kerri and everyone for putting this together and spreading the word.

Posted by: Stacey D. | February 10, 2013 03:10 PM

I shared the idea with my readers today on my blog and of course across other social media channels.

Thanks go to the Diabetes Advocates members who had this great idea to help children in need this Valentine's Day.

http://www.d-mom.com/spare-a-rose-save-a-child/

Posted by: Leighann of D-Mom Blog | February 10, 2013 03:25 PM

Twittered and facebooked!
Hope it helps!
FB

Posted by: Frank Best | February 10, 2013 04:42 PM

I posted a link to this post on my facebook. Hope this gets some really good traction!

Posted by: Kirsten | February 10, 2013 06:30 PM

I have 1) donated, 2) facebooked, 3) tweeted, and 4) blogged. My bloggety blog post is here:
http://theclumsyjuggler.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/a-rose-for-a-child/

I've had a small voice nagging me to donate at least something to Life for a Child for a while now and I finally did it. Needed that small push.

Posted by: Amanda | February 10, 2013 07:40 PM

Out of town right now, will blog, FB, Tweet on Thursday...touched to see such an effort going forth for these precious kids...

Posted by: Amy Lilley | February 10, 2013 09:16 PM

posted a link on facebook

Posted by: Anonymous | February 10, 2013 10:49 PM

Kerri-
I recently found your blog and absolutely LOVE it. I dont feel alone with diabetes anymore. Love the humor too. OMG, after 33 yrs with diabetes, its nice to laugh about it! Shawn Shepard turned me on to you. I aspire to be a speaker for diabetes someday.

Yes, posted this on my site: https://www.facebook.com/DrJodyND
and
https://www.facebook.com/jody.stanislaw

hope to meet you someday!
Jody

Posted by: Jody Stanislaw | February 10, 2013 11:12 PM

We have a lot of readers from Mexico, and I know how bad things are there. I will promote it on my networks!!!

Posted by: Mila Ferrer | February 11, 2013 12:09 AM

Fabulous effort - we love the Life for a Child organisation!

Thank you to you all for this initiative - we have shared this with readers on our blog: http://timesulin.com/blog/diabetes-in-the-news/spare_rose_save_child/

Obviously this is also all over our Facebook, Google+ and Twitter pages.

Happy Valentine's Day to all our D-friends around the globe!

Posted by: Susan Moolman | February 11, 2013 04:35 AM

Hi Kerri. I LOVE this idea! Here's my post:

http://www.meanddblog.com/2013/02/can-you-even-imagine.html

Thanks!

Posted by: Jess | February 11, 2013 09:31 AM

Shared and loving this idea!! Here is my post and thank you for this!!
http://diabetesadvocacycom.blogspot.ca/2013/02/spare-rose-save-child.html

Posted by: Barb Wagstaff | February 11, 2013 10:52 AM

Thanks for what you and this DOC group have done, Kerri. Very cool. I have included a Spare a Rose item as our top News Nugget and will be leaving it up all week. We'll also plan to have a blog post on this later in the week.

Posted by: Mike Hoskins | February 11, 2013 11:20 AM

Greetings,

Very happy to say that both The Blue Heel Society & The Type1Rider Organization are pleased to support this wonderful effort, and along with Blog post's we will be sharing in our other online spaces as well.

Nicely done,
Tom Moore, CCO
BlueHeelSociety.org
Type1Rider.org

Posted by: Thomas Moore | February 11, 2013 11:29 AM

shared om FB

Posted by: corina | February 11, 2013 11:56 AM

Just wanted to update that the post is now live at Type1Rider.org!

Thanks again,
TM

Posted by: Thomas Moore | February 11, 2013 01:49 PM

I can't even tell you how much I love this initiative!! I'm proud to do my part to spread the word, and I've posted here: http://www.bittersweetdiabetes.com/2013/02/spare-rose.html

And to show my love for all who make a donation, I'm asking for those who donate by Valentine's Day to leave a comment on my blog post. On Friday I'll pick one name and knit the winner something to wear on Blue Fridays. Just my little way to show some love to all who help Spare a Rose, Save a Child!!

Posted by: Karen | February 11, 2013 02:20 PM

I love this! Thank you for your work creating such a fabulous way to help others. I hope we are able to gather a lot of money for those most in need.

Posted by: Cynthia Zuber | February 11, 2013 02:34 PM

Oops! I forgot to include a link to my article. Here it is. http://diabeteslight.com/spare-a-rose-save-a-child/ Thanks again!

Posted by: Cynthia Zuber | February 11, 2013 02:36 PM

I've added my own article at http://wp.me/p1gr0x-N2.

Posted by: Scott Strange | February 11, 2013 03:53 PM

Ah, forgot to link to our site where that News Nugget is shown...https://www.diabetesmine.com/

Also, added a discussion thread on this over at DiabeticConnect... http://www.diabeticconnect.com/discussions/17800-valentine-s-day---spare-a-rose-save-a-child-with-diabetes

Posted by: Mike Hoskins | February 11, 2013 04:11 PM

I probably should have linked every one of the images I used to the IDF page. That would have been the smart thing to do.

I should probably fix that...

http://tobesugarfree.com/2013/02/11/spare-a-rose/

(Thanks for letting me know about this)

Posted by: Chris | February 11, 2013 04:35 PM

just shared on FB. great idea!

Posted by: Cecilia | February 11, 2013 06:34 PM

Love this idea. Count me in.

Posted about it on MDH.
http://www.mydiabeticheart.com/2013/02/11/spare-a-rose-save-a-child/

Posted by: Mike Durbin | February 11, 2013 08:06 PM

I put it on my blog today, as well as on my fb page.
http://crebbinfamily.blogspot.com/2013/02/spare-rose-save-child.html

Posted by: Toni | February 12, 2013 09:41 AM

https://myglu.org/ will be supporting this cause in our Weekly News this Friday

Posted by: Bill Woods - Community Mgr @ Glu | February 12, 2013 10:00 AM

This is a wonderful effort, I've added it to my blog: http://probablyrachel.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/spare-a-rose-save-a-child/

Posted by: Rachel | February 12, 2013 12:47 PM

On my blog and facebook! What a great cause!

Posted by: Tamara | February 12, 2013 07:47 PM

Thanks for coming together on this DOC. New post on my blog now too. http://t1works.blogspot.com/2013/02/spare-rose-save-child-this-valentines.html

Posted by: Sean | February 12, 2013 09:22 PM

Hey Kerri,

Here is our post for the Spare a Rose, Save a Child campaign: ow.ly/hGiGI Thanks for such an awesome idea dedicated to such a great cause...

V.

Posted by: VirtueB | February 13, 2013 10:57 AM

Whew! Finally got my post up... I put it on my D-blog and my personal blog, so my non-D peeps will see it. Here are both links:

http://www.deathofapancreas.com/2013/02/flowers-die-donate-so-child-wont.html

http://miscellaneoust.blogspot.com/2013/02/flowers-die-donate-so-child-wont.html

Posted by: Joanne | February 13, 2013 11:22 AM

I think I must be the last one. Great idea. Love to see all of the responses!

http://happy-medium.net/2013/02/13/make-your-valentines-day-meaningful-sparearose/

Posted by: StephenS | February 13, 2013 12:24 PM

I found the link through Scott J. blog. Shared with 25 different groups and my own personal facebook page. That is all I can share due to fb policy on sharing articles. I will keep trying. Love the idea. Love the DOC.

Posted by: BettyS | February 13, 2013 05:17 PM

Just joined the DOC with a new blog and I'm happy to support such a great cause!

Posted by: B. | February 13, 2013 08:55 PM

I'm sharing on my blog! http://www.staceysimms.com/spare-a-rose/ Great idea - wonderful cause.

Posted by: Stacey Simms | February 13, 2013 11:16 PM

Hi Kerri!
I've just created a page on my blog (lazypancreas.wordpress.com) about this cause. It's such a fantastic initiative, long live the power of the DOC!!

Posted by: Georgie | February 13, 2013 11:58 PM

In honor of my 25th anniversary of living with diabetes I posted your link to my Facebook page. Hope the campaign is going well!

Posted by: Chrissy | February 14, 2013 08:36 AM

This is so great. What a wonderful idea.

http://tarraandduchess.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Tarra Robinson | February 14, 2013 09:22 AM

We donated our $5 and blogged about this. Great idea!

http://t1dandkortnie.blogspot.com/2013/02/spare-rose-save-child.html

Posted by: Amanda | February 14, 2013 10:39 AM

This is wonderful, here is my post on my personal blog sharing this effort! Thank you to everyone involved in making this happen. http://www.livetolovediabetes.com/spare-a-rose-save-a-child/

Posted by: Naomi Kingery | February 14, 2013 11:49 AM

LFAC is a cause I'm passionate about...for the past 2 years, I've kept a tab on my blog devoted completely to them. Seeing the DOC at large rally around this program is the BEST Valentine's gift my candy heart could ever have asked for!!! It brings me pure joy to be a part of this project!!!

http://www.candyheartsblog.com/2013/02/change-world.html

Posted by: Wendy | February 14, 2013 03:40 PM

Thanks for letting us be a part of this exciting effort! We posted a blog about “Spare a Rose, Save a Child” at The LOOP blog at http://www.loop-blog.com/blog/This-Valentine's-Day,-Spare-a-Rose-and-Save-a-Child and told our Medtronic Diabetes Facebook community about it at http://www.facebook.com/medtronicdiabetes.

Happy Valentine’s Kerri, the diabetes advocates, and the DOC. Keep up the great work!

Your Medtronic Diabetes Team

Posted by: Medtronic Diabetes Team | February 15, 2013 03:07 PM

This is such a great Valentine's Gift!
I look forward to seeing the difference the DOC makes!

Posted by: Cori | February 15, 2013 07:22 PM

What an incredible idea!

Never shared my link earlier, but I'm hoping it's not too late!!

Posted by: Jen Aragon | February 20, 2013 10:35 AM

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