December 2023 - Looking back on another year...

Good Afternoon, Lewy Warriors!

It’s time to take a look back at all the things that we did together this past year and begin to look towards 2024. Before that, we wanted to say that we hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season filled with warmth, love, relaxation, and fun. We sure did.

We’ll start things off with a little update on our donation total! We’re so excited to share that we've reached $66,417 in total donations! Amazing! Although we had somewhat of a quieter fundraising year at CLBDI, the donations have continued to come in organically and our reach has grown naturally. We’re so thrilled to see it and are so thankful for the generosity and support from our community. Considering that we started the year under $40,000… we’re filled with gratitude and joy. Thank you, again.

So, what did we get up to in 2023? Well, as previously mentioned, it was a much quieter year than 2022 for many reasons and we had to pivot our plans quite a few times. Luckily, we've gotten pretty good at it. Looking back, though, we did manage to get quite a lot done considering how crazy the year was for all of us.

We launched the CLBDI YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@canadianlbdinfo​) in February along with our first webinar. In March, we spoke at Mt. Zion Church in Waterloo as part of their “Beneath The Surface In Waterloo” speaker series. In April, we announced “The P.E.I. Project”, which was to be a walk across P.E.I. by our founder following the Island Walk path to raise money for LBD research. Unfortunately, she injured herself early and we ultimately chose to end the walk for her own health and safety. She was grateful to be able to spend some time on the island and recover, though, and during her stay she met so many wonderful people. On top of that, the support and love we felt before, during, and after the event was just amazing. During this time, we also saw an unprecedented jump in donations and were able to reach some of our major donation milestones very quickly.

During the summer, we took some downtime to recover and reorganize ourselves after some major life changes and unexpected medical emergencies. During that time, we continued to post, share stories and connect with community members, and grow the CLBDI platform online. We started our instagram account (@canadianlbdinfo) and continued to connect with other LBD platforms. During our downtime, we began to think hard about LBD advocacy and what that means for us. This lead to some plans that we have cooking for 2024 and beyond including advocacy letters and more.

In September, we had our first "CLBDI Community Walk" in St. Jacobs. It was a wonderful time and we cannot wait to announce more in the spring of 2024. Thank you to everyone who joined us. In October, we said farewell to Advisory Board member Keith Myra and hello to new members Marisha, Michelle, and Morgan. We wanted to thank Keith again for everything he’s done and say that we’re so pleased with our new cohorts and what they bring to the table. You can expect to see and hear more from them in 2024. And lastly, in November and December, we released the first two episodes of the “CLBDI Talks” interview series featuring Dr. Stephen Pasternak and Natalia Busch RN. We are so grateful to them for taking time to speak with us and we hope that you enjoyed our conversations.

It has been a strange and wonderful year but we’re so humbled by the constant support we've received. We're also very proud of everything we’ve accomplished so far with CLBDI. Throughout the year, we’ve been consistently updating the LBD Resources page of our site, connecting with more LBD communities, sharing more LBD-related content, and meeting more of your wonderful Lewy Warriors. It's been amazing. We have a whole bunch more community events planned for the new year and will be announcing some of them very shortly. You can always follow us on Facebook to stay up to date with our daily announcements. If you're interested in a more detailed breakdown of the year, you can always read the collection of monthly blog posts from the previous years in our CLBDI Blog archive.

I think that is all for 2023. We want to wish you all the best in 2024 and a Happy New Year’s Eve. See you next year!

Best,
Joe & The CLBDI Team