Hello Lewy Warriors,
We're happy to announce that our digital art show and fundraiser, "Our Emotional Journey With Lewy Body Dementia", opens on Friday, March 26th here on our website. Mark it on your calendars and be sure to come and check it out! All proceeds are going to Dr. Pasternak's LBD research at UWO! Joe
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2/25/2021 0 Comments February UpdateHello Lewy Warriors!
Can you believe it's the end of February already?! Time seems to be flying by! March is only a few days away now so I wanted to make a post here to share some information on a few events that we have coming up and some important dates to keep in mind. Firstly, we will be launching the promotions for Carol's digital art show, "Our Emotional Journey With Lewy Body Dementia", next week. Keep your eyes open for the poster to drop here and on our Facebook page. Please consider sharing it around and spreading the word about the event. The more, the merrier! The gallery will be launched here, on our website, on Friday, March 26th. You will be able to find it a link to the gallery on our "Community" page. All proceeds from the show will be going to Dr. Pasternak's team at Robarts. In fact, we're happy to report that two paintings from the show are already sold! If you're not able to, or interested in, purchasing some art, please still come check out the art show and enjoy the gallery. Carol put a lot of work into her art and this show means a whole lot to everyone here at CLBDI. There will be no charge to visit. And for those of you who wish to donate, but would rather do so in smaller amounts, there will be other avenues available to you. We're happy to announce that we will be running another Gofundme fundraiser through the spring. It will be going live on Carol's birthday in Mid-March and it will continue running through the opening of the show and into April. At the end of March, we will be sharing our new donation total and looking ahead at our next total donation goal. We have no intention of slowing down any time soon and with the pandemic (hopefully) on it's way out in the later parts of this year, we're looking at doing live events again (eventually, pandemic permitting). Keep an eye out for more information on that if you are a 519 local. We'd love to see people coming out when things are open again. And finally, when services open up and become available to us, we will be finishing the Youtube video and launching our channel (among the many other plans that have been put on hold due to the lockdown). We have also added a few new links to the "LBD Resources" page and will continue to update it as we find more interesting and pertinent things to share. We hope everyone is staying safe, happy, healthy and finding moments of joy as the weather warms. Spring is just around the corner. All the best, Joe 2/11/2021 0 Comments Ten Thousand!Good afternoon Lewy Warriors,
We have some wonderful news to share... It's time to celebrate!!! We have just received word that we have officially surpassed $10,000 in donations to LBD research! Wow! Incredible! A million thanks to everyone who has been a part of this journey so far. We couldn't do it without the support and generosity of our community. With your help, we have hit (and are now well past) our first donation milestone. A round of applause for everyone! We will be sharing the total donation count at the end of next month but we are SO EXCITED to have hit one of our goals despite the challenges we faced this past year. Again, thank you all. Cheers, The CLBDI Team 2/8/2021 1 Comment Bob's Memorial: One Year OnGood evening everyone,
We just wanted to share the news that we have now activated Bob's Memorial page and added it to the site. You can find it on the site's navigation bar or by clicking this link. "Everything that we do at CLBDI is, in one way or another, done in memory of Robert "Bob" Schmidt. Bob passed away a year ago today after his battle with Lewy Body Dementia. He was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, educator and so much more. He was a Lewy Warrior. His story and others just like it are why we continue to advocate for LBD patients and educate the public." You are all welcome to leave your own comments, tributes or memories at the bottom of the site. Best, Joe Hello fellow Lewy Warriors and welcome to 2021!
We hope the holidays treated you well and you find yourself safe and healthy and happy as the new year continues on. We have a bunch of announcements for you and plenty of upcoming events but first and foremost we wanted to share some great news! We raised $1,100.00 for Lewy Body Dementia research at the Robarts Institute with our Holiday Fundraiser!!! Can you believe it?! A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated, liked, commented or shared our posts. Thanks to the support of the community, we were able to pass our first goal of $500 and our second goal of $1000 and we think that is absolutely amazing. This money will go directly to the people fighting the good fight against LBD at the Robarts Institute. In other wonderful news, we think that we have now surpassed (or will surpass) our original goal of $10,000.000 in total donations by the time we get our quarterly donation report. We can't officially announce the total until the end of March but we're already buzzing and when we have the official word, you can be sure we are going to celebrate! Over the next few months we have a bunch of stuff coming your way and have been busy planning more great LBD content, events and fundraisers for the rest of 2021. In the coming weeks, we are finally going to be able to share some information on what Dr. Pasternak and his team have been working on. You will be able to learn where your donations are actually going to and what's been happening in the study of LBD at Robarts/UWO. We wanted to share this with you in advance as it is a great way to actually see and understand the difference we are making and the impact of your donations as the research team learns more about this disease. Keep checking back for more information. On Feb 8th, the anniversary of Bob's passing, we will be posting a memorial filled with wonderful words from his friends, family and members of the community. The memorial will be posted both here in the CLBDI Blog and on our Facebook page. All are welcome to drop by, pay your respects and leave a comment. After that, we will be gearing up for the launch of the next fundraiser and Carol's online art show "Our Emotional Journey With LBD" in late March. The art show will be featured on a new section of our website and we will have many ways for you to donate or get involved. More information is coming your way next month so be sure to check back regularly. And finally... As we have been saying for a while... sometime in the next few months we will be launching our Youtube account as well as branching out to other social media platforms. I know that it's been taking a while... but I wanted to let everyone know why. We have experienced countless delays due to the ever changing lockdowns and restrictions in our region and the stress the pandemic has put on ourselves and our families has slowed our work flow (sometimes to a halt). There are multiple caretakers/medical professionals who are a part of CLBDI and the pandemic has been extra hard on them too so we work at the pace that best fits all of us. The main issue that we are facing now is that we haven't been able to access the proper tools to record the voice-over for our presentation both safely and professionally. Since we are all working remotely, we decided to wait until we can do things properly so that we can deliver the best quality content. We apologize for the delays but we promise it will be well worth the wait. In some ways, this was a blessing for us, as we have now had the presentation reviewed by Dr. Pasternak and can be sure that we are putting our best foot forward when we release the final project. And, as per usual, we will be updating the "LBD Resources" page regularly and adding a new section to our booklist for dealing with stress and grief. Unfortunately, these are a natural part of the caretaker and patient's journey. We wanted to be sure to include some resources that could help out those people who may be struggling. All the best, Joe 12/23/2020 0 Comments As 2020 Comes To A Close...Good evening Lewy Warriors,
We wanted to post an end of the year summary and Holiday blog post and share some updates with you all. Normally, we would consider posting more than one but the upcoming holidays and lockdown have shaken things up a bit. So this one will be a bit longer than usual. Firstly, before we get into the CLBDI updates, we wanted to wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season and a Happy New Year. We hope you are all safe, happy and healthy going into 2021 and there is some holiday cheer in your life right now. While I'm sure that we are all hoping that 2021 is a new chapter and a return to normalcy, we at CLBDI like to take a moment to count our blessings and ground ourselves in the now. So, as we reflect on the past year, we'd like to acknowledge that there have been so many moments of joy, humanity and goodness that shine through the dark. It is important that we remember and cherish the good in our lives as we move forward. One of the amazing things that happened this year (and that we are so grateful for) is the growth we've made at CLBDI and the generosity we've seen from all of you. As of December 11th our donation total for the year sits at $8,256.00. Incredible. Thank you all so much for your generosity. The money we have raised is going directly towards LBD research and the fight against this horrible disease. We are also happy to share that some direct donations were made after the 11th and, when combined with donations from the CLBDI Holiday Fundraiser that is running right now, we are inching closer and closer to the $10,000 mark. We are already more than halfway to our first donation goal on Gofundme! If you'd like to help us pass beyond that (or share the fundraiser around with people you know), click the link below. https://gofund.me/c1801904 You might notice that some of the pages have been updated and edited for more clarity and simplicity. There are also a bunch of new LBD resources available. Throughout the year, we have been adding more LBD related content and continue to update the site regularly. If you haven't browsed through the site in a while, now is a goof time to check it out. You might be surprised to see all the different stuff that we have added. We are also getting closer to the release of our first original video content on our Youtube channel. It has been slow going due to the return of COVID and other personal bumps in the road but hopefully by the end of the month/start of the next we will be going live. Finally, we are still on track for our digital art show, "Our Emotional Journey With LBD", for sometime in mid-2021. Carol has been working away on her paintings and we've begun planning and brainstorming the event. We hope to have a physical art show before the end of the year, but that will depend on the state of things in regards to the pandemic and vaccinations. As we get things together, more information will be available to everyone through here and on our Facebook page. If you aren't following us there yet, consider giving us a like and a follow. You can check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianLBDInfo I guess all that is left to say is "Thank you" (again). We couldn't do this without you. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year to you all. All the best in 2021. Cheers, Joe 11/16/2020 0 Comments Working Things OutGood evening!
A short clerical post for you today. We have been made aware of some connectivity issues between our Facebook page and the Facebook widgets on the "Community" page of our website. We have been in touch with Facebook and are trying to get that fixed as soon as possible. When it is all up and running properly, you will be able to interact with us (send us messages, check out our feed, like and follow our page, etc.) through this website even if you don't have a Facebook account. This is great for those family members who may not want to involve themselves with social media anymore but want to stay connected to what's going on with CLBDI. We are also still aiming to have a CLBDI Youtube account up and running by the end of the year. All of our original content will be featured on the "Community" page and our "Resources" page. Keep an eye out for announcements, as it will be coming very soon. Lastly, we wanted to let you know that over the next few weeks we will be working short-handed and may take extra time to respond to comments, reply to your messages, or get back to your emails. Please be patient with us. We promise that will be back and operating at full capacity in early December. Thank you. Best, Joe 10/29/2020 0 Comments The Updates Begin!Hello everyone,
We just wanted to let you all know that the updates to the website have begun! You can now find the direct contact form on our home page and everything you need to know about CLBDI on the "About Us" page. The new "Community" page is where you will be able to follow our social feeds, leave public comments, and communicate with us and other visitors to the site. We are currently building that page and should be done in the next few days. We should note that the page may go down for a short period to implement some aesthetic and coding changes. If that is the case, we will let you know. Thank you for being a part of this community. We're looking forward to growing together and creating new ways to share LBD information, support one another and better communicate our LBD experiences and stories. Best, Joe 10/11/2020 0 Comments Happy Thanksgiving!As we go into the long weekend, we are acutely aware that this year has shown everyone their fair share of stormy weather. It has, without a doubt, been a rough few months. Yet, we also know that there is still so much to be thankful for, even during a pandemic, and now is a great time to be grateful for the good in your life.
We're thankful for our friends, our family and all the support you've shown us over the past year. You know... Practicing gratitude for all the blessings in your life, big or small, is a great way to stay grounded in the here and now. It's not just for the holidays either. So we're wishing everyone peace, joy and comfort today and every day. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at CLBDI. May it find you happy, healthy and safe. And on a more serious note, we will be shutting the site down soon to update a bunch of the pages and to add some new ones that will focus on community building. We will be letting you know exactly when it will be happening in the coming week. It should not take more than a few days and we can't wait to show you what we have planned. All the best, Joe 9/24/2020 1 Comment CLBDI September UpdateHello Lewy Warriors,
I'm here with a quick update for all of you regarding what's coming in October and what we've been up to this past month. We just received our quarterly donation total update and we're now sitting at $7,456! Thank you to anyone who has donated in the last few weeks. We understood that with everything going on, things were going to slow down with CLBDI... but seeing our donation number steadily go up has been such a wonderful surprise. In regards to your donations... We're excited to say that we'll be able to share with you exactly what your donations are going to and what the wonderful team at Robarts has been working on in regards to LBD research very soon. As previously stated, the CLBDI Facebook page is now up and running. It is where we share LBD news, articles, videos and original content, some of which unique to Facebook. You can also get in touch with us directly by sending us a message through Facebook messenger and you can share your story with us and the community. If that sounds like something that interests you, I urge you to definitely check it out. You can follow the page and join the community by clicking this link: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianLBDInfo Also, we've working hard to finish up that LBD video presentation that will be shared when we launch the CLBDI Youtube channel. Along with that, there will be the previously mentioned site updates and a bunch more cool stuff including a new bookmark/brochure that will be available and some CLBDI merchandise/online shop. Things have been moving somewhat slow through the summer but I promise that we have a bunch of plans in motion for the next few months and are back to working regularly. Everything that we've been talking about over the summer and mentioning in our blog posts (and more) will be coming your way in the next few months. As always, thank you for checking in. We are wishing you the best as the fall begins. Stay safe, healthy and happy out there. Best, Joe |
AuthorThe CLBDI blog is run by Advisory Board member Joseph Daniel. Archives
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