The Blue Heel Society: Mixing Fashion with Passion

I love shoes.  My closet is a bit...  well, let's just say you might trip over a shoe or two.

I love shoes of all kinds!  My favorites are boots and new tennis shoes.  But I also love heels, flats, crocs, clogs, and everything in between.

So you can imagine my excitement when I heard about The Blue Heel Society!

If you haven't heard about BHS yet, let me have the pleasure of introducing you! 

The Blue Heel Society is an advocacy organization designed to focus the spotlight on people who live with or care for a person diagnosed with diabetes. The symbol, The Blue Heel, was chosen because the heel represented what a person living with diabetes, either Type 1 or 2, LADA, gestational….1.5, whichever, must look like to the outside world. The shoe is beautiful. The representation is, that our heels cause pain, discomfort, and a host of other issues not always made visible. The heel as a way of saying that people with diabetes can look perfectly fine on the outside. That doesn’t mean a silent war isn’t raging on the inside…and it wasn’t a choice. We can take the proverbial heel off….they can’t.  The heel represents the allegiance to promoting awareness and advocacy and helping to ultimately find a cure.



The folks at BHS were kind enough to answer a few questions for me.  Here's what they had to say...

Tell me a little about The Blue Heel Society.  What is the purpose?  What are your goals? Why heels?

"Our hope, with our Society, is to accomplish several goals. Number one on the list is to use the inclusive simplicity of wearing blue shoes to further diabetes advocacy. We intend to foster awareness about the daily difficulties all persons living with diabetes and their caregivers are faced with, including financial and emotional tolls, and use our meet up campaigns…our “Shoe-ins” as a way for people to connect, network, and show support for each other all while uniformly working toward the same goal. Inclusive. Fun and it’s an easy way to show love and support without any financial or time commitments . You simply wear a blue shoe. We hope that in doing so, our efforts are one day recognizable world wide. If you see a person wearing the blue shoe….you immediately think Diabetes Awareness and Advocacy. Much like several ribbon campaigns which use a specific color to define who they are advocating for so eloquently and foundations who use sneakers or blue circles…..we all have the same goal. We want a cure for all people living with diabetes."

So how can I get involved?

"If you want to know how to become involved with our organization….slip your foot into something Blue-tiful and log on….

We can be found at www.BlueHeelSociety.org where we post about our mission and our meet ups. We are on twitter @BlueHeelSociety and we are on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BlueHeelSociety. We have our email and phone numbers listed on all of our media sites so we ask you simply contact us with questions and let us know how we can help in your community. We are in the works putting together a Blue Heel Walk…and so many other fantastic events. Please come check us out!"

Awesome!  I am SO heading to the shoe store(s)!  What a super reason to get a new pair of shoes!  Is there anything else you'd like to add?

"Remember " Type 1 or 2, old or new, anyone can rock a BLUE shoe!"."

The Blue Heel Society was founded by Alexis Newell, Diane Pridmore, and Tony Cervati.  All three are amazing people whose passion for diabetes awareness can not be contained!  You can read more about all three of the incredible people by clicking HERE.

Personally, I think the BHS is one of the most creative and exciting awareness campaigns out there. And I love the inclusiveness - because we ARE all in this thing TOGETHER. 

In fact, I already went out and got a pair of BLUE shoes!  They aren't heels... I can't find a pair that I'm in love with yet.  But thanks to my D Mama pal Laura, I found some awesome tennis shoes!

Here they are.... with the reason that I wear them!  (That reason loves to be in pictures so she squeezed herself into this one - hence the goofy smile!)

But I'm not the only one rocking some blue shoes!  No way!  We had a JDRF Promise to Remember Me meeting on Tuesday with Representative Jean Schmidt.  More on that soon...  but my friend and fellow D Mama, Jen, wore a STUNNING pair of blue heels to the meeting!  LOVE THIS!

 

This is Jen and her beautiful daughter!

So what are you waiting for?  Hit the mall or Target or Payless or the internet and get your shop on!  It's time to rock some BLUE SHOES!