Hello Lewy Warriors!

We apologize for the lateness of this monthly update. As some of you may remember, we took a week off in the latter half of August and during that time I (the IT and social media manager) traveled to Portugal. It was an amazing trip but I unfortunately ran into some issues and was stuck in Portugal for longer than expected. As we mentioned on our Facebook Page last week, this meant that we were unable to fully open things back up at CLBDI until I returned. I'm home now and we're catching up on everything we missed. We have a few things to cover today so let's get to it!

Firstly, due to the extended absence and so that we can maximize the reach of our show, we've decided to extend the second CLBDI digital art show until Thanksgiving! Now you all have more time to go and check out the amazing artwork donated by the many talented artists! Visit the CLBDI Online Gallery today and be sure to share the link to the show with friends and family.

In related news, we are also toying with the idea of having a small, local, in-person viewing event at the end of the digital portion of the show. If this idea comes to fruition, we hope to invite everyone in the Waterloo Region to come and check out these amazing works of art in person. More information on that soon.

Secondly, we unfortunately ran into some issues with our email account and have not had access to it since the 20th of August. We were unable to fix it until I had returned from Portugal but we managed to reach the people that we needed to speak with to get it fixed and the issue has since been resolved. We've been told that the email account should be up and running tomorrow evening. With that being said, if you have reached out to us during these past three weeks, we may not have received your email. If you don't hear back from us, please reach out again. We're so sorry for the lack of communication.

​We are still working on branching out to other social media platforms and getting our Youtube page up and running as well. We're obviously running a bit behind and playing catch up at the moment but we still have plans to expand to other platforms and bring you original LBD content. There will defintely be more information on CLBDI's next steps in the September update.

Thank you to everyone who has purchased artwork, donated to UWO, and reached out to us in the past month. We're hearing more and more of your stories and connecting to more and more people who are on their own LBD journey. We are so grateful to be able to help everyone out, whether they just need someone to talk to, are looking for information about LBD, or are looking for resources in our community. We also have heard that some younger Lewy Warriors have been raising money and donating to UWO on our behalf and have joined London, who donated a piece to the art show, in raising funds and awareness about LBD. We wanted to thank them for their compassion and generosity. Together we really can make a difference.

Ok, that is all for this month. We hope everyone has had a wonderful end to their summer and you are all looking forward to the coming holiday season(s). We sure are.

All the best,
Joe and the CLBDI Team

Hello Lewy Warriors!

What a month! We're already halfway through the summer and we've got tons of information to share with you. First and foremost, we've launched our second online art show over on the CLBDI Online Gallery! This year's show features a collection of amazing artists who have graciously donated their artwork (time, energy, hard work, and creativity) to our cause. We simply cannot thank them enough for their kindness and support. The show will run until mid-September and artwork will be sold on a "first come, first serve" basis so be sure to check it out as soon as possible. All funds that we raise through this show will be going to Dr. Pasternak's Lewy Body Dementia research at the University of Western Ontario after the show closes. We have also decided to include the option to purchase a copy of any of the posters for the show on matte poster stock as well, so if you really dig the posters or want a copy of your own... you can do that!

Speaking of fundraising, our wonderful liaison at UWO Emily let us know that we've reached $32,821.17 in total donations as of the end of July! That is just AMAZING! We cannot thank the community enough for helping us surpass our goal of $30,000.00 raised. This is a win for everyone! Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who has donated or shared our posts or been involved in any way. We've been speaking with Dr. Pasternak and hope to bring you an inside look at where this fundraising money is going and how it is being used to better understand Lewy Body Dementia in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled!

We've also been meeting with our Advisory Board to brainstorm our plans for the rest of the year and have started to think about the holiday season. We hope to have some announcements coming your way very soon along with some new CLBDI merchandise and maybe even some updates for next year!

We also will be making the CLBDI brochure available to you to download in August and will be doing some regular updates to the rest of the site as the summer comes to a close. Are there any features that you feel that we are missing? Send us an email or get in touch with us via the contact form on our homepage! We would love to hear from you about how we can make this site better.

We should also let you know that we will be out of the office from the 21st to the 29th of next month and will be very slow to respond during that time, so if you're interested in getting in touch with us or purchasing artwork from the show, please consider doing so in the next few weeks.

We hope everyone is having a wonderful summer so far and thank you to everyone who has already visited, purchased artwork, or had kind things to say about the art show. We'll see you in a month!

Best,
Joe

Hello Lewy Warriors!

Welcome to the summer! We hope you have all had a wonderful June and are excited for the Canada Day long weekend coming up. It's been a busy month for us but we are super excited for July and the rest of the summer.

We've been getting ready for our upcoming online art show and fundraiser and that has been the main focus for CLBDI all throughout June. All of the amazing pieces have been photographed, the first two posters have been unveiled, and the new and improved online art gallery is in the process of being built. We can't wait to launch the show and for you to see all the awesome artwork that has been donated this year. This year, our show features artwork from various artists based out of Waterloo, Northern Ontario, B.C., Pennsylvania, the UK, and more. The show will run from July 25th to mid-September and, as with last year, every dollar we raise will be going to Dr. Pasternak's LBD research.

Dr. Pasternak, who also sits on our Advisory Board, is a neurologist working at The Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer Research Centre (CNARC) and the Robarts Research Institute at the University of Western Ontario.

CNARC is "a specialized clinic for the investigation of neurodegenerative disease and research on the clinical features, causes, diagnosis, and treatments of these diseases." This includes Alzheimer’s disease, Frontotemporal dementia, and related disorders including Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, Lewy Body Dementia, and Parkinson’s disease dementia.

Want to learn more about what they're doing? Check out these links:

https://www.schulich.uwo.ca/.../cognitive.../index.html
https://www.robarts.ca/

Next month, we will be printing more CLBDI literature and sharing it throughout the community. If you live in the Waterloo Region and would like a few copies for yourself or your business, don't hesitate to ask or send us an email! A printable digital copy will be coming to our website in the coming months as well.

We will also be getting a new donation total in July from Emily at UWO so you can expect an update on where we stand in the July Update post.

In case you didn't know, we have a Facebook page that we are very active on. We post regularly (multiple times a week) and share all types of LBD-related content. We're looking to grow our community there so click here if you want to check it out. Be sure to give us a like and follow!

That's all from us this month! Have a wonderful July and Happy (early) Canada Day!

Best,
Joe

Good Afternoon Lewy Warriors!

It's the end of the month which means it's time for another monthly update! May has been another month of working behind the scenes and gearing up for this summer's events. We're inching closer and closer July which means that we are weeks away from the launch of the next art show's promotional material and event rollout. We're shooting all of the paintings and prints over the next week or two at a wonderful studio in Kitchener and then we will begin to share more information including the show's poster, dates, and more. Keep your eyes peeled!

We also finally met with our liaisons from UWO, Emily and Ashley, for a lovely lunch. We discussed our plans for the future, brainstormed some ideas and had a wonderful time. We wanted to thank them both for their support and all that they've done for CLBDI over the past few years. They have been an integral part of CLBDI and it was so nice to finally meet them in person. They let us know that, even though we haven't been running fundraising events through the first two quarters of 2022, we are still receiving donations and reaching new people. Though I do keep track of our website's traffic, it is amazing to hear that people are not only donating but also finding our website and community helpful and inspiring.

You might have noticed that we've added a territorial acknowledgment to our homepage. We chose to do this because CLBDI stands in solidarity with and respects the Indigenous Peoples of our region and across Canada. It is our formal statement recognizing the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous Peoples and their traditional territories. 

Also, coming throughout this summer and fall will be our expansion onto other social media platforms and more original CLBDI and Lewy Body Dementia-related content. We have plans to launch our YouTube page (finally) and to get on Instagram and Twitter. Be sure to give us a follow when we launch!

In case you missed it, the Intentional Lewy Body Dementia Conference is coming up on June 15th and 16th in Newcastle, England! The ''Living With Lewy" strand of the event (done in collaboration with the Lewy Body Society out of the UK) is free to attend both physically and digitally for any caretaker, medical professional or dementia patient. It features tons of amazing speakers such as Norma Loeb, Susan Williams, Timothy Hudson, and more. If you are interested in attending, click here to browse the programme and fill out a registration form. It should be noted that since this is happening in the UK, the times indicated on the agenda are UK times. That means that for those living in Eastern time zones, the times indicated are actually 5 hours ahead, for Central time 6 hours ahead, for Mountain time 7 hours ahead, and for Pacific time 8 hours ahead. The conference will also be recorded and will likely be available online for those who cannot attend.

That is all for today but we will be posting multiple times in June as we move towards the launch of our second online art show. Check out last month's update for more information on the show including some links to some of our featured artists and visit the Community page on our website to read all about last year's show.

Have a wonderful June!

Cheers,
Joe 

Hello Lewy Warriors!

We hope that you've had a wonderful month and are enjoying the warmer weather as we progress toward the summer. We are almost ready to start the rollout for our next online art show and can't wait for you all to be a part of it. This year we are featuring pieces from seven different artists including our founder Carol Schmidt, Kitchener based painter and illustrator Alan Daniel, Pennsylvania based abstract artist Megan Bechtold, B.C. based painter and digital artist A. Claire, and more. As with last year's show, all proceeds will be going to Dr. Pasternak's LBD research at UWO. We wanted to thank all the artists for donating to this show and allowing us to have an even bigger event this year.

You may have also noticed that the site has not yet been translated! As we've previously stated, we've been taking our time to find the best possible option for translation and, unfortunately, the whole process is taking a bit longer than expected. It will still be happening though and you might notice some changes to the site over the next month or two. We are also looking to branch out into other social media platforms and into the wider community. Soon you will be able to follow us on Instagram and, over time, many other platforms. We'll finally be launching our Youtube account in the next couple of months as well. Expect some more information on that in the near future.

We also wanted to highlight that we have updated the "LBD Resources" page regularly over the last few months and added a selection of new links and content including "Forward With Dementia", "Lewy Body Ireland", and so much more. If you haven't browsed our site in a while, take some time and check it out. You might just find something new!

And, lastly, we are excited to share that we are almost out of the first run of our CLBDI shirts! We have been sending out orders this past week so if you ordered a shirt recently, it should be arriving next week. Thank you to everyone who has been ordering shirts in the new year and we will be donating funds from shirt sales to Dr. Pasternak with the total from the next art show. If you haven't yet ordered yours, visit our "Community" page and get one before they run out.

That's all for us this month. We wish you the all best in May.

Cheers,
Joe

Hello Lewy Warriors!

We hope you have all had a wonderful March. We don't have a whole lot to update you on this month so this will be a short blog post. We do have a bunch of plans that are really starting to come together for the summer months, so expect some updates and information on these events in the next blog post at the end of April.

What we can tell you today is that we are finally working on having our site translated so that we can offer an English and French version of the Canadian LBD Information website. This process has been slow going as we're taking extra time to find a translation service that understands the importance of medical terminology and will give us a proper translation of those words. We don't want anything to get lost in translation. That update to the site should be coming in the next month or two and when it does happen, we may have to close the page down for a day or two. Don't worry though, you will be given plenty of heads up and our Facebook will remain active during the downtime.

Secondly, we have had to move the date of the second CLBDI online art show to July due to some personal things happening behind the scenes and have decided for various reasons that it will remain as an online-only event. This means that there will no longer be an actual in-person art show. We are sorry if anyone was looking forward to that but this will be safer for the public. We're looking forward to announcing more information on the show at the end of April. 

With that being said, we are looking at hosting some sort of outdoor CLBDI event in the summer, so there will still be a chance for us to (hopefully) get out into the community and see some friendly faces.

And, lastly, there are still a few CLBDI shirts left! Our stock numbers are dwindling fast and some of the sizes are completely sold out, so if you wanted to get a shirt... the clock is ticking! Check out the design and place an order on our "Community" page.

That's all from us this month. We hope you have a wonderful April.

Best,
Joe

Hello Lewy Warriors!

We hope you had a wonderful February! We're here to fill you in on what we've got coming this Spring and everything that has happened in our world this past month. Much like January, February was another quiet month for everyone at CLBDI but, as always, we have been busy planning for the future. You can expect tons of content and events coming your way as the weather gets warmer.

First and foremost, we passed the second anniversary of Bob's passing earlier this month and saw the release of a wonderful article by Valarie Hill on Bob's life and journey with LBD in the local newspaper, The Record. If you missed it earlier this month, you can read the article by clicking this link:

https://www.therecord.com/life/2022/02/07/remembering-bob-schmidt-a-lewy-warrior.html

We also had our first ever financial report with our Advisory Board and brainstormed with them on some of our plans for the coming year. We wanted to thank them again for lending their advice and support to everything we do here at CLBDI. We've also decided not to run a Spring Fundraiser this year and focus on our next online (and possibly in-person) art show. We're happy to announce that the show will be coming in late June and that we are bringing Carol and at least 4 other artists together to raise money for Dr. Pasternak's LBD research. We're hoping that if the pandemic situation becomes more agreeable, we will be able to show this one in person too. Either way, it's going to be so much fun.

We have also been busy connecting with other Lewy Body Dementia organizations across the globe and building relationships in an effort to better connect everyone with the information they need and share that information/content more freely. This includes being featured on the "Forward With Dementia" site, getting in contact with the "Purple Sherpa" team, and so much more. As time goes on, we hope to continue to build an LBD network both locally and abroad. One of our goals has always been to make things easier for anyone who wants to learn more about this disease or connect with the many great LBD communities online.

As always, we continue to update our Resources page with new books, content, links and more. Be sure to check it out as it is an ever-growing archive of Lewy Body Dementia information.

And lastly, we still have a few more shirts available to order. This is a one-time printing so if you like the design, now is that time to get yours! For more information and to place an order before we run out, visit the "Community" page of our website. If this design isn't for you, we are still planning on doing another run of merchandise this summer, although it may be a different type of merchandise altogether next time around! Keep your eyes peeled for more information.

Thank you all for your support.

Best,
Joe

Hello Lewy Warriors!

In case you didn't know, this past Tuesday was the two year anniversary of Bob's passing. This year, to commemorate the occasion, we added a piece of writing from Brodie Schmidt, Bob's eldest granddaughter, to the "Bob's Memorial" page of our website. It was also the publication date of an article written about Bob in our local newspaper (The Record). We just wanted to let you know that you can now read that article online on The Record's website. Wonderfully written by Valerie Hill, this article sheds light on who Bob was and his journey with Lewy Body Dementia. We have added a link to the article below and have also shared it on our "LBD Resources" page and the CLBDI Facebook page. Thank you Valerie for writing about Bob, CLBDI and sharing his story with the wider community.

Click the link below to check it out:

https://www.therecord.com/life/2022/02/07/remembering-bob-schmidt-a-lewy-warrior.html

We hope you have a wonderful rest of the month and we'll see you in a few weeks for the February blog update.

​Joe

Good Afternoon Lewy Warriors,

We're back with the first monthly update of 2022! We hope that you had a wonderful start to your year and are all safe, surrounded with supportive people and feeling good. This will be a rather short blog post as we only have a few things to share with you this month. First of all, we wanted to let you know that our contact at UWO, Emily Grass, has let us know that as of Jan. 13th, our donation total sits at $28,561.00! Amazing! We're so close to our second goal of $30,000.00 and it is all thanks to you. We're so grateful and humbled by our incredible community and all that we've been able to do together in just a few short years.

January was a quiet month for us as we traversed through another province-wide lockdown and regrouped after the Holiday Fundraiser. We've been working away, planning for our next online art show and doing lots of clerical work. We have also reached out and connected with some more great LBD-related resources and added them to the LBD Resources page of our website. We highly recommend that you check out the "Forward with Dementia" and "The Alzheimer Society Waterloo-Wellington" links as they are both great organizations that offer tons of support, information and content.

This month you can expect more information about the upcoming art show, an article on Carol's late husband Bob in Waterloo Region's local paper, The Record, on Feb. 8th (which is also the anniversary of his passing), and potential updates to the site including the option to translate our site to French! As spring gets closer, we will have more events lined up and lots more to share. Keep checking the CLBDI Facebook page for more up to date information, announcements and LBD-related content from across the web.

Thank you again for being a part of this wonderful community. We're wishing you all the best in February.

Joe

Hello Lewy Warriors!

We're back with our final CLBDI blog post of 2021! Can you believe that it is already over? It seems like this year just flew by. First and foremost, we hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and that you all have a safe and fun New Year's Eve planned. We thought that we would take a minute to look back on everything that we've done together this year and celebrate the end of 2021 with positivity and gratitude.

I am so happy to announce that our 2021 Holiday Fundraiser's donation total is $1,623.95 (this includes a percentage of CLBDI shirt sales) and will be donated to Dr. Pasternak and his team tomorrow. What a way to end out the year! Thank you to everyone who donated their time, energy or funds to the fight against Lewy Body Dementia. A special shout out goes to Dean Widdifield who donated a whopping $500. So unbelievably generous of him. As Carol, our founder, says, "Merci Mille Fois!" We couldn't do it without all of you.

Although we have been dealing with the pandemic and things haven't really returned to "normal" throughout this past year, we've been so overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of everyone in our community. We're proud of everything that we have accomplished together and can't wait to share the new donation total next month. For now, let's look back on some of the amazing things we've done together.

We started the year with the $1,100.00 donation from the 2020 CLBDI Holiday Fundraiser and shortly after we surpassed $10,000.00 raised in total donations. In the spring, we launched our first ever CLBDI online art show, "Our Emotional Journey With LBD" and received such amazing feedback and so many kind words. At the same time, we ran our Spring Fundraiser and together we raised another $4,625.00. We continued to work through the summer months, adding to our list of resources, updating the site, and planning for the fall. By midsummer, we had raised $22,241.00 in total and surpassed our first overall goal of $20,000.00.

In September, we surpassed $25,000.00 raised in total and welcomed a new member (Natalie Leitzmann) to our Advisory Board. We also began working more closely with the board members as we began to plan our first merchandise drop and brainstorm plans for 2022. We wanted to take a moment here to thank every member of our Advisory Board for lending their skills, energy and minds to what we do here at CLBDI. We look forward to continuing to work with all of you and are so grateful that you continue to be a part of what we are doing. Thank you.

In October, we launched our first ever CLBDI merchandise drop and have sold well over half of our inventory since. We have plans for the next drop already in the works but if you still haven't gotten one for yourself click here to learn more and place an order. In November, we launched our Holiday Fundraiser for 2021 and started sharing information about the next online art show that we are putting together for next year.

Finally, we arrived at December and the end of another year. We've got a feeling that we're past the $30,000.00 in total donations mark but we won't know until next month when we hear from Emily at UWO. We also wanted to take a minute here to thank her as well for all she does for us. It has been a pleasure working with her.

You can scroll through the CLBDI Blog and check out more of the minute details but WOW. Considering the circumstances, we've done quite well. We couldn't do it without such an amazing community. Thank you all so much for an amazing year of growth and so many positive experiences. Being a part of CLBDI has given me so much joy. To be able to help in the fight against LBD and to get to know so many wonderful people fills me with such light and pride. You are as much a part of this as I am and together we are making a difference. We cannot wait for 2022 and the future of CLBDI.

Wishing you all the best this coming year.

​Cheers,
Joe