8 of 12: JDRF Walk To Cure diabetes

Last Saturday, October 30, 2010 I helped out at the 2010 JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes that was held at the Tempe Town Lake.  I got to help sell tickets for a raffle they were doing. It was a huge event, lots of people and companies, great turnout.







***2026-08-20 Update: Added link to the short video created for this event.

7 of 12: Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes

This past Saturday, September 25, 2010 I helped out at the Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes event. This was a two part event as there was a rally for the event on the Thursday of the previous week. In that rally some of the volunteers had the opportunity to meet, share their story/reason for volunteering, and go through the assigned responsibilities for the day of the event. I was assigned to the Food & Beverage tent.

On the day of the event, I arrived at around 6:30am, signed in, and headed to the Food & Beverage tent. Responsibilities for this included, pre-walk food and beverage set up, prepare food, set up cold drink area, keep supplies replenished, post-walk food and beverage set up, and cleaning the food area after the event.

And almost as quickly as it began it seemed to end. It was a fun event. Check out the Step Out: Walk to Fight Diabetes website for event dates,  volunteer opportunities, how to donate, etc.

Quick recap of October 2008... and September...

This October there were just so many things... and I wanted to blog about them as they happened... I did try keeping up the first part of the month, but then there were a few weekends in a row where I had things to do on both Sat and Sun that it didn't happen. Either way, I think that I like blogging about things once they have happened more than about when they are coming up... Seems like when I talk/blog about things before they occur the majority of the time they end up not happening or the initial plan changes... Anyway here is a quick(maybe not so quick) re-cap of October... and a bit of September...

So really where to start.. So I did blog about the Sept. 3rd WNBA MERCURY vs Lynx game, and during the same post I talked a bit about the Hispanic Heritage Month event on Sept 17th, that I helped put together for work, as well as a brief get together on Sept 20th at Pedro's house, that was nice, but one can only take so much karaoke in one night...

I missed talking about Sept 5th... I made brownies and banana bread for a school event. I placed generous portions on a foam plate and individually put them inside plastic baggies tied with a red raffia bow. I thought they came out really nice. I also donated some hot dogs and hamburgers for the event. There were various booths at the event, although it was a bit dusty... Note for next time, make signs with info on what is being sold and at what price.

Sept 21st was the HAPA concert at the Orpheum Theater...

Sept 25th I did a presentation at work on my Target House Trip...

• Meeting Bullseye at Target House - August 5, 2008, video by friend Zhil 
• Silly String Fight at Target House ~ August 5, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 2, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 3, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 4, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 5, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! ~ August 6, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Naomi ~ August 3-5, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Robin ~ August 5, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Amy ~ August 3-6, 2008 
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Danette ~ August 4-6, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Zhil ~ August 5-6, 2008
• From Beale Street to Target House: A Memphis Volunteer Journey! - From Other Volunteers ~ August 5-6, 2008

Sept 27th was a day trip from Phoenix to northern AZ and then back down to Phoenix.


Then October...


October 1st went Halloween shopping, didn't buy anything, just browsed to see what kinds of halloweeny stuff was out this year... I'll have more on Halloween in ab it...

October 4th went to a Muslim Festival in Tempe... there were booths with crafts, food, travel booklets, there was also a museum like information that was put together of the history of Muslims in AZ, and a stage. Browsed for a bit then went to the Rainbows Festival. At this one there were tons of booths with crafts, food, travel info, other events info, etc. It was packed.

October 5th I participated in the City of Hope breast cancer walk. This walk went through the Phoenix Zoo. This is the second year I have participated. Last year I was focused on walking and finishing as fast as possible. This year I took time in order to take more photos of the event and the zoo animals, specially the zoo animals :)

October 12th was the Tempe Tardeada... On my previous post I just put a link to their site and a brief that the event celebrates Tempe's Hispanic culture and community history. So when I got there, I browsed through their craft and informational booths, food booths, and their stage. There was a mariachi, I think from Tucson, playing when I got to the stage area. I drank a Coca-Cola made in Mexico. It's sweeter than the US made Coke. It brought me back to the weekends I would be at my grandmother's house. I want one just thinking of it...

October 17th... Not really an event that I went to, but this day is when I voted early... Just thought it needed at least a line about it... I took a photo of my ballot before I voted and after I voted.

October 18th.., This day was packed full of events and wish I could have done all. There were three really that I wanted to go to, but only got to do two of them. First, the one I was not able to go to was Tucson Pride. I would have needed to wake up super early to drive to Tucson and then would have only been able to be there a couple hours before I would need to head back. Maybe next year. So the events I did go to... During the day I went to the Roosevelt Row Harvest Festival. It was great to see many different types of art and artists. I wanted to take photos of everything but I didn't as I thought maybe the artists may not want photos of their artwork out there. So I took just a few photos of the event, but I did take one photo of one piece of art though, a dress where the bottom portion was made out of cut up plastic bags. Later that day, I participated in the Light the Night Walk @ the Tempe Town Lake. Seems that there were less vendors than last year.

October 19th began the Childsplay's 2008-09 Spectacular Season of Theatre for Young Audiences and Families @ the Tempe Center for the Arts. I helped to put stickers on the book The Velveteen Rabbit which is one of the upcoming shows. This night they previewed the play called Getting Near to Baby, based on the book by Audrey Couloumbis. I got to stay and watch the play.

Octber 25th I helped at the St. Mary's Food Bank. It was my first time helping at a food bank. I got to help in the sorting of food donated my various different stores. They have to be sorted and weighed one store at a time, reason being each particular store wants to know how much they donated. So from noon to 3pm I helped out in tossing the donated food that was unusable. I am so glad I got to participate and help out, however it is amazing how much food goes to waste.

October 26th I helped put together walker packs for the JDRF walk that took place on Nov 1st. I got there a bit early, but I was able to start putting together the packs. It was to take us about 5 hours to put together the packs, but we were able to do it in 2 hours. I wasn't able to go to the walk itself.

October 31st... Was able to get off work about an hour early to come home and give out candy and frights.

Visit my myspace, Facebook, or livespace for photo albums... :)

Hope you all have a happy start to the Holidays!

2026-08-06 Update: Added link to Facebook and removed link to livespace which doesn't exist any longer. Removed some outdated links and some replaced with links to their corresponding YouTube videos from my channel.

2026-08-18 Update: Added link to the short video I created for the YouTube channel for the JDRF Walk Super Sunday Volunteer event and links to the various videos and photo video collages form my visit at Target House.

Fun in the sun...

Past couple weekends have been sunny, and I've been out volunteering. My face got a bit sunburned.

April 5th I helped at a local school in the setup for their American Cancer Society Relay for Life event for about 5 hours. I helped setting up the trash cans, decorations, arrangements, tables, kids play area, snack area, and white chocolate covered strawberry tray, as well as a gofer to several people.

April 11th I helped the Phoenix Pride with their last minute things for close to 5 hours. I got to distribute many cases sodas to the various vending locations and water to the stages. Then I helped rearrange cases of liquor and beer that had fallen over in the truck they came in. Lastly, I helped with marking, painting and glittering for the Phoenix Pride Float.

April 12th went to the Phoenix Pride Parade. I was super excited when I saw the Phoenix Pride float. After the Parade, went inside the Festival and walked all over the place, to almost every booth and stage.

April 13th I helped the JDRF at the Phoenix Zoo. The Juvenile Diabetic Research Foundation was presenting a research and update meeting to parents. During this time I was assigned 3 kids, Kassie, Cutter, and Cory, that I took all over the Phoenix Zoo. I got a walkie that I used to check in every 30 minutes. It was really fun.

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2010-02-14 Update: Added link to Phoenix Pride http://phoenixpride.org/
2026-08-07 Update: Added links to the videos created for my No Tan Diario Chronicles YouTube channel.

JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes...

Today I participated in the JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes. This event, like the previous volunteer walk I participated in, was at the Tempe Beach Park. This time the walk was in the morning. Started at 9am, team photo at 8:30am and registration at 7:30am. I arrived at around 7:15am so was able to register and do quick walk/warm up around looking at the different vendors and participants.

Starbucks was giving a free tall coffee to whoever wanted, so that's where I headed first. They were also giving sample size servings of Pumpkin Spice Latte. There was an official breakfast area that was giving out juice, apples, bananas, oranges, mini muffins, and breakfast bars. The music on the stage was great. Fox was the tv sponsor and they brought Stewie from Family Guy was there.

The walk route was 5k and very well planned. Some walkers and runners took shortcuts. Not me. I wanted to really be able to say that I walked the whole 5k so I did it with no shortcuts and it felt good.

At the finish line they were giving out gift bags with candles in them. Nice. I also got a few giveaways that some companies were giving. A couple pens, energy drinks/water, a dog toy from PetSmart, and a few other nick knacks.

They then had brown bag lunch for everyone. Ate there and then came back home. It was a nice event.

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2026-08-07 Update: Removed some links and added link to the video made from photos of this event created for the No Tan Diario Chronicles YouTube channel.