(ARA) – Budgets get pulled in many directions over the holidays: you have a lot of gifts to buy, but it’s also the season of giving to charity. If both of those are important to you, mix shopping and supporting a great cause: stopping diabetes. The American Diabetes Association’s Gift of Hope program is designed to do just that. Every penny of profit from your holiday purchases goes directly to diabetes research.
The Gift of Hope program was started in 1971, when several Minneapolis-area parents of children with diabetes wanted to do something to fight the disease. They started selling holiday greeting cards to raise money for diabetes research. Since then, the program has raised $22.5 million for diabetes research, averaging 50,000 customers a year.
Gift of Hope offers an exclusive line of holiday cards, house wares and seasonal items for everyone on your list. Much of the artwork featured in the program was created by or dedicated to a person with diabetes.
Proceeds from Gift of Hope benefit the nearly 24 million children and adults in the U.S. who have diabetes, including Amy Johnson. Johnson, from Kansas City, Mo. Amy is the American Diabetes Association’s 2010 National Youth Advocate and is featured on the cover of this year’s Gift of Hope catalog.
“My diabetes diagnosis opened my eyes to everything – my health, what I eat, how it was going to affect my future,” Johnson says.
Three weeks after being diagnosed, Johnson attended an American Diabetes Association (ADA) camp and soon participated in her first diabetes walk. Volunteering led to her appointment as youth advocate in Kansas City.
Much of Johnson’s activity represents a grassroots campaign to build awareness of diabetes and to advocate for diabetes-related issues, including increased research. “My overall goal is to band youth together in the fight against diabetes, not only on type 1, but also type 2,” Johnson says.
In 2009, the American Diabetes Association launched the Stop Diabetes movement to encourage individuals to get involved by sharing, acting, learning and giving. This year’s catalog profiles people who are committed to the cause. Here are four steps you can take to stop diabetes this holiday season:
Share: Tell the world why you want to stop diabetes. Your story will inspire others to join the movement. Purchases from Gift of Hope show that you care.
Act: Get involved. Participate or volunteer at an American Diabetes Association event. Advocate for more government funding of research. Turn your holiday purchases into research dollars by ordering from Gift of Hope, and encourage others to order at diabetes.org/giftofhope.
Learn: Be informed on your own risk of developing type 2 diabetes and learn about lifestyle choices that help prevent the disease and its deadly complications.
Give: Establish a monthly donation to the association or include it in your estate planning. You can donate any amount to Gift of Hope – even if you don’t make a purchase.
To shop the Gift of Hope online catalog and start turning your holiday purchases into research dollars to stop diabetes, visit www.diabetes.org/giftofhope.
