Turn Edmonton Blue!

RECAP OF WORLD DIABETES DAY 2009

For the 2008 World Diabetes Day, the Alberta Diabetes Foundation celebrated not only this significant day, but our first anniversary in our new building, the Alberta Diabetes Institute, which opened last November. It is quickly emerging as the pre-eminent diabetes research facility and is home to huge advancements in the search for a cure, such as the Edmonton Protocol.

With a new location came a new opportunity to gain exposure in the community and raise our public profile. Therefore, we launched the Blue Campaign where we encouraged Edmontonians to help us turn Edmonton Blue.

The campaign involved 3 different components outlines below:

“Blue” Dining for Diabetes
In this area of the campaign, we contacted an array of businesses to see if they would be willing to feature a signature “blue” dish (whether that be literal or merely just a healthy alternative). Initially we got the support of local restaurants with Blue in their names (ie. The Blue Willow, The Blue Pear and Blues Java Bar) and then branched out to the other establishments (The Sugarbowl). For the week leading up to World Diabetes, the aforementioned establishments featured our signage, small ad cards designed for their consumers, our Alberta Diabetes Foundation pins (which we custom-designed to promote our blue theme) as well as the menu items themselves:

• Blue Willow Menu Item: Blue Nun Wine and a light noodle dish.
• Blue Pear Menu Item: Seasonal dish (varied)
• Blues Java Bar: Blueberry Tea and a Blueberry Milkshake
• The Sugarbowl: Blueberry Panne Kuchen

Monument Challenge

The monument challenge in Edmonton was obviously stemmed from the World Diabetes Day website and this year we managed to outdo last year’s total of only one monument in the city. In 2008, we managed to light up 4 different high-traffic areas of Edmonton:

1. Edmonton’s City Hall

Lucky for our organization, the Christmas lights this year were blue and we were able to time them with being lit up on World Diabetes Day for the first time.

2. Jasper Avenue

This main artery into Edmonton’s down town core was donned with blue lights for Christmas, but the Downtown Business Association allowed us to utilize them to further promote World Diabetes Day.

3. The Muttart Conservatory

This was the only building lit up this year and despite being shut down for construction, the 4 monumental pyramids were still able to be lit up with specialized construction lighting rigged up by the Operations coordinator.

4. Alberta Diabetes Institute

The building was lit up on the University of Alberta Campus and managed to light blue despite a few technical difficulties.

“Blue” Window Shopping

To further spur awareness in the community, we contacted popular retailers in high traffic areas in the city. We managed to receive overwhelming support from the Lulu Lemon locations in both West Edmonton Mall (the largest mall in Canada) as well as Kingsway Garden Mall. Furthermore, Red Ribbon in Edmonton as well as Blu’s Women’s Wear in the downtown core also donned a Blue themed window display.

Government Recognition

On the Monday after World Diabetes Day, the staff from our organization was formally recognized by the provincial government while in session. They made a formal statement in regards to World Diabetes Day, made statements to the media and donned our blue Alberta Diabetes Foundation pins.

All in all this was the first year we had managed to incorporate a campaign into World Diabetes Day and we look forward to making it bigger and better in years to come. I am thrilled to report that we are working on acquiring national partners for next year, which would have worked this year if not for time constraints within our organization. We also are looking to expanding the Blue Dining for Diabetes further as well as the Blue window shopping. The Lulu Lemon locations are the pre-eminent sport clothing retailers in Canada throughout some of the United States and we are excited to have them on board.

I was blown away by the support in the community and realized that 99% of individuals are willing to get involved once they are informed on the issues. As home to the Edmonton Protocol, we are thrilled to be having such huge advancements in diabetes research made in our building. With 35 different principal investigators from 5 different faculties working feverishly towards a cure, we are confident that this disease will be depleted and that we can one day go out of business.