Support, Advocate, & Educate

No, I'm not talking about my rival college fraternity of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

(Sigma Pi is the best, of course!)

Actually, we're talking something else here. It's SAE (pronounced “say”) and it stands for Support, Advocate and Educate. This year, Sarah over at Sugabetic is announcing November 1st as SAE day. You may be thinking, “What’s going to be so different about this day than the rest of the month?”. Well, here’s the plan: November 1st is the first day of Diabetes Awareness Month. What better way to kick it off than to have the first day be the day we really push for awareness? The idea is to do something in relation to each letter on November 1st to “SAE” diabetes and raise awareness in a big way.

So, here's the game plan:

•Support•

This month, lots of people are doing JDRF walks. If you can, support them by donating towards their walk. If you can’t, don’t feel bad! As a community, we can support each other by doing what we do everyday, just a little more. Blogging is some ways that people advocate. If you read the blogs, try to comment on all the ones you read on SAE Day. Let the writers know that you are there to support them not only as a diabetic, but as a D-advocate blogger. Which brings us to…. 

•Advocate•

Let your voice be heard. There’s an awesome link through the ADA where you can advocate for Diabetes by sending emails to your local officials to try to raise awareness for diabetes issues in your area. There’s lots of topic, and some are state specific. Head on over there and check it out and try to send out at least one letter today! Another way you can advocate is by being a Diabetes Diplomat for the DRI. You can find more information here.

•Educate•

Tell your story! Find an opportunity to educate someone about diabetes. Blog it, Facebook it, Twitter it, MySpace it! However you’d like to do it. Maybe there’s a co-worker or casual friend that knows you are diabetic, but that’s all. Take the time to educate them today – tell them the facts about diabetes, describe your type of diabetes, show them your emergency kit in your drawer or locker (you do have one, right?), encourage them to ask questions. Through this, maybe we can raise awareness to what living with diabetes really is like, and maybe dispel some of the myths out there. Maybe even take them out for lunch and eat a big slice of cake in front of them to show them we can , in fact, eat sugar!
If you are on twitter and you submit a #dblog about SAE day or do something for SAE day, tweet about it! Use the hashtag #saed (support, advocate, educate diabetes).

So, there you have it: SAE Day. It's all the rage. C'mon. Jump on the bandwagon and help be a part of this broader Diabetes Awareness Day, which looks like it'll be a great way to start of such an intense month of D-Advocacy!