Wow. It's been too long, so let's take a few minutes to run through some changes and updates at the Foundation.
Always Say Thank You First
We have to say thank you a thousand times over to two departing Board members. Ben West and Jason Calabrese have left the Board, but are still very much involved with the Foundation and the Nightscout community.
Ben's tireless work in creating tools to bring data to life and to deliver them to the public in a safe manner will never be equaled. He has worked on Nightscout and the OpenAPS project for free for over two years, and personally, he talked me through getting my own system up and running those 20-plus months ago. Ben was the first member of the team that I met in person, and from the minute he sat down at the bar with me in San Francisco, his passion and devotion to all things open and diabetes and technology was unmistakable. It was his passion that sucked me in, and it will be hard to ever repay all Ben has given to this community so freely.
Jason was the second member of the team that I met in person. I remember going home from that dinner thankful that I had met someone as frustrated with the state of diabetes technology as me, but smarter than me, so he could actually do something about it. If you don't know, what you think of as Nightscout: the beautiful display, the charts, the alarms, the pills, the CarePortal, much of that came from Jason. As a fellow parent, he was feeling all the same pains as me, and he was able to do something about it. Jason's excitement for the next release was always palpable, as he would smile such a broad grin about the things he was going to share with the rest of the community.
These two men have given me and my family so much of our lives back, and they have done it so freely, in the name of openness and making life with diabetes better. They are leaving the Board, but they are not going far, and I think you'll still hear lots from them. I'm proud to consider them friends, but I also consider them heroes.
Thank you both, from the bottom of my heart. I will always be in your debt.
Mark Your Calendars Now
We hope you will join us this year at one of the events and conferences where the Nightscout Foundation will be present. Right now, we're on the agenda at these Children with Diabetes conferences:
- Friends for Life Falls Church 2016 at the Fairview Park Marriott, Falls Church, Virginia (April 8-10, 2016)
- Friends for Life Orlando 2016 International Conference at at the Marriott World Center Resort in Orlando, Florida (July 5-10, 2016)
- Friends for Life Anaheim 2016 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California (September 16-18, 2016)
Smile and Tweet Your Way to Supporting the Foundation
The NIghtscout Foundation is a 501(c)3 non profit. We run on caffeine, love, and donations. Did you know you can support the Nightscout Foundation by buying a shower head? A DVD? A new filter for your regrigerator? Simply visit smile.amazon.com and set your charity of choice to the Nightscout Foundation, and every time you go shopping on Amazon and start at smile.amazon.com, a portion of your purchase will support this group. This month, we received over $300 from Amazon from people just like you, doing the shopping they normally do.
We also were fortunate enough to be included TODAY in a test project from Twitter and Stripe that allows for non profits to reach out to donors directly through Twitter and link followers directly to a donation site. If you're not following along, you can keep up with us @nightscoutproj and @nightscoutfound.
Supporting the Next Generation of Hackers, DIYers and Citizen Scientists
It's almost graduation time. No, really! It is! And that means that many students and parents are starting to play the application game and the finance game. We want to help. This month, applications will become available for the Nightscout Foundation Community Scholarship. For more information, please visit the new Scholarship page on this site.
It's Been Too Long
In case you haven't noticed, I'm not great at updates! We need some help! If you are interested in working with the Foundation on our social media outlets, of every flavor, please let me know. We're looking for someone to help with Twitter, Facebook, MailChimp, and of course, reminding me and the rest of the Board to occasionally get something on the blog page here. If you have a passion for Nightscout and social media, let's talk! Email me, james@ this domain.
Thank you to all, for all you do for the community.
JW