Promise Campaign Blog
Welcome to the Promise Campaign blog. Check back each week to get the inside scoop on completed Promise meetings from your fellow volunteers, catch profiles on JDRF advocates from across the country and read periodic Campaign updates from our co-chairs.
You came. You saw. They promised. The 2008 Promise To Remember Me has officially wrapped up as JDRF’s most successful to date, with an incredible 374 personal meetings taking place in congressional districts across the nation. Kudos to you, JDRF advocates, for making this program a huge success.
Some snapshots to take away from this program include:
*You successfully met with nearly 70 percent of our national elected officials – and all in less than a year. To look closer, you met with 68 percent of the Democrats and 72 percent of Republicans. You met with an amazing 90 percent of the Senate Finance Committee, a key group for our immediate and future needs, as well as with 75 percent of the House Energy Committee, another key group.
While many of your meetings took place at district offices, you were more than creative in finding great locations to meet up with your elected officials at. Some of you sat down for picnics with them; others met up at public appearances. And just to prove how flexible we are, some of you went all out, meeting elected officials at birthday parties and in one case, in the lobby of a hospital while the Congressman’s grandchild was being born upstairs. These locations prove not only that you are resourceful: they also prove that when JDRF advocates call, elected officials respond—no matter what else is going on in their lives.
Your determination was remarkable as well. We started out back in August with a bang, scheduling an impressive 39 meetings in a month that Promise had never taken place in before. And you kept pushing. As the months went on, your work level increased and increased. Rather than burn out, you thrived. Our final Promise month, April, brought in a total of 68 meetings on its own. Talk about finishing up with a flourish.
But the most important thing about Promise is quite simple: These meetings mattered. And continue to matter. With the renewal of our Special Type 1 Funding still in the works, this was – and is – a year that we need to grab and keep hold of the attention of every single elected official in Washington. What better way to have done that then to have spread across the country and met with such a high percentage of them? As we work toward that goal and our elected officials are called on to make decisions, you can be sure that JDRF – by way of your face and your voice – will be foremost on their minds. After all, you came to meet with them. You saw them face to face. And they, across the board, Promised to Remember You.
Thanks for everything you do and congratulations on a successful campaign!
Tom and Lorraine
Hello fellow JDRF Supporters,
It’s been an incredible time since I last touched base with all my JDRF friends. I’ve been just about around the world, getting to share my music with millions of people. How cool is that?
Even though I’ve been on the road, you folks and the great work you are doing for the Promise to Remember Me Campaign have never been far from my mind. One of my favorite songs to perform is called “Free.” I love it not just because it’s a beautiful melody, but because the lyrics make me think of all you, and all we have done as a team and how we won’t give up until we’ve reached our goal: a cure for diabetes. Listen to the chorus:
You'll be free
Nothing's impossible
Free (alright, alright)
You've achieved the unexplainable
Free
I believe that miracles
Happen to those
Who refuse to be told
They can happen when we least expect
So we let ourselves be free.
When Tom, Lorraine and I decided to set out goal for this Promise campaign at 400 meetings, a lot of people thought that might just be impossible. But we didn’t because we knew that you – our teammates in the battle for a cure – can and will achieve the seemingly impossible, the unexplainable, so that we can move toward the miracle of a cure.
And you are doing it. As of this week, we’ve completed 321 meetings. That means 60 percent of Congress have met with you face to face, heard your stories and yes, promised to remember us all when it comes to supporting whatever we need on Capitol Hill for a cure. And you keep pushing and working toward our goal.
I know you know that nothing is impossible. I know you understand that, one day, we will achieve a mighty goal and we will all be free of diabetes.
Keep up the good work and know that every time I open a set, every time I sing a song and every day I work at living with diabetes, I remember you, the people who are truly working toward a world free of diabetes. Pull out your Elliot Yamin CD and play this song for inspiration. Or go to YouTube and download it to your IPod to play on the way to your next Promise Meeting. And know that, each and every day, I am thankful you are part of the Promise to Remember Me Campaign.
Best,
Elliott Yamin
We’re more than half way to the finish line on Promise to Remember Me 2008, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to sit back. In fact, anyone who has run a marathon or watched a basketball game (and who hasn’t been watching basketball these past weeks!) knows, it’s the effort you put into the last mile or the last two minutes that really shows what you are made of.
With just weeks left in PRMC, we all need to dig deep and find that extra surge of energy to catapult us across the finish line as winners: winners who not not only made 400 In-District Congressional meetings happen, but who left a mark that led to the renewal of our Special Diabetes Funding.
Thankfully, we’ve all trained well and are ready for our late-game push. For those of who attended Government Day, you know the vital importance of finding our way across the finish line. For those of you who have attending phone call trainings, read the weekly email blasts or spoken with your chapters about this, you too understand why we have to dig deep.
So now it’s time to do it. If you’ve been making calls and working on meetings all year, bravo for you, and we know you can find that extra boost of adrenalin to make this happen. Review what you’ve done and look at what you can try for again. Like the quality athlete who has hit a few three pointers but missed some others, embrace your confidence and go at one again. Call the office that have put you off; explain that more than half of Congress had made visits happen; their office needs to as well.
If you’ve been on the bench for this, we’re ready to call you in.
Fresh voices are more than welcome, and it’s not too late to be part of the winning team. If you need advice, ask us. If you know the drill and are ready to step in, just let us know and we’re happy to have you on the team.
Think of all the great victories you’ve seen in your life: really, almost all of them come down to the wire. Heartbreak Hill at the Boston Marathon. Overtime in the NCAA. Shoot outs in the NHL. It’s the stuff great wins are made of. Let’s do the same here and give it all we have to make Promise to Remember Me 2008 a recordbreaker, a success and most of all, a victory in our race toward a cure for Type 1 Diabetes.
Best of luck!
Tom and Lorraine
While sitting in Reagan National Airport for our delayed plane to take us back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I was talking to Mike Crowley, and Suzy Jablonowski (my mom). We were exhausted from our busy day on Capitol Hill during Government Day. We had meetings with our Senators and Representatives throughout the day, talking with them about the importance of the multi-year extension of the Special Diabetes Program – H.R. 2762. One of our meetings was planned with Representative Paul Ryan (R-1-WI). I say, “was planned”, because he actually was not able to meet with us due to snow in the Milwaukee area. We were able to meet with his Legislative Director, Matt Hoffmann. Although this meeting went well, nothing compares to meeting with Mr. Ryan himself, so my plans were to make my Promise To Remember Me Meeting with him when I returned home!
As I said, we were waiting at the airport, when an idea came to me. What if Rep. Ryan would get off the plane that we were waiting for? What if I would be able to talk with him right now? So, the plane lands, and the three of us were standing and watching all of the passengers get off. Easily 10 people were already past us, and I concluded that my plan was wrong…. When sure enough, around the corner comes Representative Paul Ryan with one of his assistants!
I really didn’t want to intrude on his time (knowing he was already running late) but I just had to. We stopped him and introduced ourselves telling him we were with JDRF and met with Matt earlier in the day. He apologized for not being able to make the meeting. After this short-lived meeting in the lobby of the airport, we were able to snap a picture and say our good-byes. But not without asking him to Promise To RememberMe. This was by far an amazing way to end a very successful trip to Washington D.C.!
Congratulations on a great Government Gay! It was an extremely busy weekend, but one we hope you will look back on with fond memories of new friends you made on and off Capitol Hill!
The GR office is still tabulating the meeting confirmations, but the effort everyone displayed trying to set our Promise record was incredibly overwhelming.
Since today is Valentines Day, Tom and I scribbled down a quick poem that we would like to share with all of you on this fun day.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Our Promise goal is in sight,
All because of you.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thank You for All You Do!