As the twin sister of a Diabetic, the community, about which I am most passionate and compelled to help, is the global Diabetic community. It is my goal and that of the founders of the Diabetic Angels to help diabetics everywhere improve their lives, while working to cure this devastating disease. However, diabetics face serious challenges, including discrimination from ignorance and fear, the inability to freely and easily acquire diabetes related knowledge and expertise, as well as, the skills necessary to advocate and fundraise on behalf of themselves and their community, which all too often results in poor diabetes management, low self esteem, and a lack of motivation to fight for the cure.

My project, the Diabetic Angels (DA’s), was formed 11 years ago with my twin sister, mother, and aunt. Today, the DA’s are a global online community/social network that focuses on educating, motivating, advocating, and fundraising for Diabetes. The Diabetic Angels provide free and easily accessible diabetes information and expertise. With these resources, anyone is capable of educating their family, friends, and peers, motivating them to have the confidence and competence to fight for the cure.

When we, the founders, created the Diabetic Angels, we began by recognizing the hardships diabetics face and then developed a plan to address and remedy each problem. We set short-term and long-term goals and in the founding of the DA’s, we created a vehicle to implement our course of action. We wrote a Mission Statement and By-laws, invited a group of classmates to become the original DA’s, and selected the official DA officers and assigned duties. We then set about achieving our short-term goals, including increasing membership by at least 5 members a month and eradicating the cause of discrimination by providing education and instructions related to diabetes and the management of this disease. As time went on, we initiated our long-term goals, which included taking the DA’s global and expanding the DA’s diabetes knowledge, so they could grow and become capable diabetic advocates, confident in their ability to teach others about diabetes, as well as, raise funds for medical research. When people ask us how forming the Diabetic Angels has impacted the lives of diabetics, we show them typical responses we get from the DA’s themselves! For example, “Thank you for doing what you do, I have been looking for a place where I could talk to and learn from other diabetics..." or "Thank you for showing me how to teach my family and friends (and even co-workers) how they can help me!" "...because of what I learned as a DA I saved my grandfather’s life!" Dear Mollie and Jackie, thank you for writing in your blog, 'Curemoll and Jackie too,' I have learned so much!" This is how we choose to recognize the progress the DA’s have made over the years, but if someone wanted to learn of the tangible impact the DA’s have made I would tell them that the Diabetic Angels have gone from a little school club of just ten children to thousands of DA’s who are members of many branches of DA’s across 6 continents...all with the same goal of educating, advocating, and fundraising for a cure for the 246 million diabetics around the world suffering with this devastating disease. Today, after ten years of working to expand our global support, advocating, and fundraising group we are now proceeding to another plateau, one that provides 24/7/365 access to additional resources such as, an Endocrinologist, Diabetologist, Pharmaceutical representatives, Insulin Pump representative, professional diabetic athletes and entertainers, to let diabetics and their families know that they shouldn’t let anything, including diabetes, prevent them from fulfilling their dreams! Furthermore, DA’s can now join a variety of fascinating and fun groups and/or participate in diverse forums. The new resources are possible, because over the last year we created a Diabetic Angels Myspace, Facebook, Blog, Twitter, and most recently the new Global Diabetic Angel Social Network, www.diabeticangels.com, which connects diabetics all over the world! When people ask us how forming the Diabetic Angels has impacted the lives of diabetics, we show them typical responses we get from the DA’s themselves! For example, “Thank you, I needed a place where I could talk to and learn from other diabetics. I wanted to read stories about other diabetics and how they live their lives. I was looking for information about diabetes management and I found it through the DA’s. Thank you for showing me how to teach my family and friends, how they can help me! Thank you for teaching me ways to raise money to help cure diabetes. Thank you; because of what I learned as a DA I saved my grandfather’s life! Dear Mollie and Jackie, thank you for writing, “Curemoll” and Jackie too, I have learned so much! This is how we choose to recognize the progress the DA’s have made over the years, but if someone wanted to learn of the tangible impact the DA’s have made I would tell them that the Diabetic Angels have gone from ten children to thousands of DA’s who are now members of one of the many branches of the DA’s, across 6 continents all with the same goal of educating, advocating, and fundraising for a cure for the 246 million diabetics around the world.

You can become a member (and encourage your friends, family to stop by too!) of our global social network at www.diabeticangels.com. And while you're there, check out the Diabetes 101 section (http://diabeticangels.ning.com/notes/Diabetes_101), where you can learn about diabetes, which is the first step to becoming a Diabetic Angels, but we won't give too much away, once you join the DA's, you'll be able to learn SO much more and help SO many more people! :)