Blue, red, or grey? Circle, ribbon, or hand?

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1

I am involved as a volunteer with my son’s high school band. This Friday they will be donning lots of pink for breast cancer awareness. I must admit that this annoys me a little (ok, a lot). So I’m pushing for the band to do some sort of recognition of diabetes awareness. It’s quite relevant since I am the booster president living with LADA and we have a prominent student leader that in T1.

I dove right in to look for wrist bands, pins, t-shirts only to become confused and frustrated. Of course there is the blue circle for World Diabetes Day, but I also discovered through the American Diabetes Association red wrist bands and still more confusing is the grey ribbon.

One of the reasons we see everything draped and dripping pink is because the beast cancer folks have a unified front. The Susan G. Koman for the Cure folks have their stuff together. Now whether they have merged with other organizations or just plowed through a did their own thing I don’t know,

Diabetes Awareness is not going to worm its way into the everyday vernacular without some unification of the various organizations that are trying to promote diabetes awareness. For someone that doesn’t have a current connection to diabetes the effort appears on the fringe at best. I’m not trying to undermine the efforts of the various organizations, included Manny with the tudiabetes.org effort, I believe they are doing the best they can.

So, I need some advice. What should our color/symbol be for diabetes awareness for my band and our high school to take up the cause?,at least for now.

Looking forward to your suggestions.
Jeannene

2

http://www.diabetesbluecircle.org/ I seem to recall something about UN and WHO and other organizations on board with this symbol. The Blue Circle seems to be universal. I recognize it now, but then again i’m directly affected and involved with the cause so of course I would. It’s not just for World Diabetes Day, though that is a great way to promote it.

3

Several prominent diabetes associations are on-board with the World Diabetes Day symbol (blue circle), including the JDRF, the International Diabetes Foundation, and the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO). The hand is specific to the American Diabetes Association’s “Stop Diabetes!” Campaign, and the grey ribbon with a red drop is understood only by people with diabetes.

4

I vote for the blue circle also. Think it’s a great symbol. Good luck with your campaign!