Be a Super Hero this Valentine’s Day: Skip the roses, and help save a kid’s life instead

Some of our D-friends south of the border came together and had a little brainstorm about how they might use social media for social good. There was born the idea of creating a campaign around Valentine’s day that they called Spare a Rose, Save a Child. The gist of the campaign is that you buy one less rose and donate that money to the Life for a Child campaign supported by the International Diabetes Federation.

The goal of the Life for a Child program is “to strengthen existing paediatric diabetes services so that they can provide the best possible care, given local circumstances, to all young people with diabetes in their area.” They estimate that there are between eighty to a hundred thousand young people around the world in need of better access to diabetes care and tools. Many of them do not have consistent access to such vital supplies as insulin and glucose meters; consequently, those with type 1 diabetes end up with complications from diabetes quite quickly and often die young. The Life for a Child program provides areas in need with the funds and/or supplies to better the lives of these youth .

The goal of the Life for a Child program is “to strengthen existing paediatric diabetes services so that they can provide the best possible care, given local circumstances, to all young people with diabetes in their area.” They estimate that there are between eighty to a hundred thousand young people around the world in need of better access to diabetes care and tools. Many of them do not have consistent access to such vital supplies as insulin and glucose meters; consequently, those with type 1 diabetes end up with complications from diabetes quite quickly and often die young. The Life for a Child program provides areas in need with the funds and/or supplies to better the lives of these youth, and ultimately their families and communities. (See the Life for a Child booklet for more information and stories.)

The introduction to the work of Life for a Child done, let’s talk about those pesky flowers… Did you know that the vast majority of roses in North America are imported, extremely delicate to transport (they wilt when stored above 0C, and need to be refrigerated throughout), and often have a catastrophic impact on local wildlife and workers because of the intensive pesticide use needed to keep them pretty looking? How appealing is that? Not so much. So, maybe forget the whole dozen roses this Thursday and give the money you would have spent on flowers to the Life for a Child initiative in your sweetheart’s name.

Be a super hero this Valentine’s Day: ditch the Earth destroying roses and, instead, help save a kid’s life… Please click here and give: http://bit.ly/SpareRoseSaveChild.

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To assist you in this super hero endeavour, we here at the Connected in Motion lab have been hard at work making the following instead-of-flowers Valentine cards for you to print and give to your true love this February 14th: