Although Valentine’s Day is over and florists are back selling red roses at a reasonable price, the Spare A Rose, Save a Child campaign is still going. We run until the end of February which means that there are still ten days to go.

The tally for 2019 is already looking strong. We have hit just over $28,000, and we know there is another $8,000 or so pledged from a friend of the campaign, so we’re sitting around $36,000.

And that brings us to today’s blog post which actually begins its story back in August last year, and it goes like this…

One afternoon, I was working from home and an email came in from Scott Johnson. Scott is awesome and I adore him; and was intrigued by the subject title: ‘An idea from my dad’. Scott’s dad (who is clearly as awesome as Scott) did indeed have an idea. He thought that a great way to get people to donate to Life for a Child would be to get a smiling photo of the frowniest of them all in the DOC – The Grumpy Pumper. And I was charged with the task of convincing him to do it.

To be honest, I thought that this was not going to be an easy ask. There are literally hundreds of photos of Grumps online sporting his trademark frown. (See exhibit A) Convincing him to smile – and smile in a photo for all to see – was not probably going to be met with a lot of resistance.

Exhibit A

The conversation went like this:

Me: So Grumps, Scott’s dad thinks that you smiling in a photo should be used as an incentive to get people to donate to Life for a Child.

Grumps: Are you fucking joking? (Pause) Oh, okay. I’ll smile, but don’t get used to it.

We kind of forgot the idea, but with #SpareARose in full swing and the 2019 tally being so close to the $40k mark, we thought that now was the time to bring out this idea and see if it has legs.

Here is the deal. If our tally hits $40K by Friday night (Berlin time), Grumps is going to #SpareAFrown, and get his smile on at the MySugr event that is happening at ATTD.

This is where you come in. #SpareARose is a community initiative. It was started and is run by the diabetes online community. It is owned by us and it is a wonderful example of the community taking care of one another around the world. Grumps is a part of this community, and a part of the #SpareARose family, and he is a grumpy bastard. All good reasons to make a donation.

We’re calling on the community to step and donate to get us to $40K. If you have already donated, thank you. Is there any way you can throw in another $5? If you have been meaning to donate, but haven’t managed to do it yet, please do it now. Share the donation link with everyone you have ever met.

And share the #SpareAFrown idea, to get Grumpy to use muscles in his face that just don’t get a work out and help us get to $40,000, all of which will be donated to Life for a Child to provide insulin to children who would otherwise not be able to access it.

Let’s get Grumps to #SpareAFrown to save a child.

Click on the rose to donate.

DISLCOSURE

I am currently at the ATTD conference in Berlin. My (economy) airfare and part of my accommodation has been covered by DOCLab (I attended an advisory group meeting for DOCLab), and other nights’ accommodation has been covered by Roche Global (I will be attending the Roche Blogger MeetUp). While my travel an accommodation costs have been covered, my words remain all my own and I have not been asked by DOCLab or Roche Global) to write about my attendance at either events.