GIST Awareness Day Was Monday, July 13, 2015
See the GIST Awareness Day 2015 Gallery
The Life Raft Group recently held our second GIST Awareness Day and will soon be planning our 2016 event. We’d love to have your support in helping us celebrate this great annual event! This day is an opportunity to stand in solidarity with those living with GIST (Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors), an often-neglected cancer of the gastrointestinal tract that affects 5,000 new people every year in the U.S. alone.
None of our goals can be reached without you! Help us bring attention to this disease by educating your friends and family and joining our call to action. Support our efforts through fundraising, participating in advocacy efforts, holding an awareness day event or spreading the word through social media. No matter how you choose to celebrate GIST Awareness Day, you will be helping to shine a light on GISTers around the world. Thank you for your support!
Our GIST Awareness Day 2015 Mosaic
Our inaugural GIST Awareness Day in 2014 was a huge success, and 2015 was even bigger and better! This year, we celebrated GIST Awareness Day by creating a mosaic made from #ShowUsYourRare photos from all over the world. To make the mosaic, users posted photos and videos to Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and the Life Raft Group Facebook page with the hashtag #ShowUsYourRare. We’re ecstatic with the support from the community, and are planning even more ways for patients, donors, caregivers and research to connect in support of finding a cure for GIST in 2016.
How to Participate
If you want to participate in GIST Awareness Day (GAD) activities, you have a lot of options:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOLD A GAD EVENT BUT HAVE LIMITED TIME OR RESOURCES? HERE ARE A FEW SUGGESTIONS:
- Find a local fair or festival and ask a few friends or family members to attend with you. Walk through the crowd and ask people if they will take a picture to raise awareness for a rare cancer. Bring a white board so they can write what makes them rare.
- You can also ask your local hospital/cancer center if you can set up a table in their lobby encouraging people to take pictures to support Rare Disease Awareness.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HOLD A BIGGER EVENT? HERE ARE A FEW IDEAS:
- GIST Awareness Day is in July, a great time for barbecues! Throw a backyard barbecue and ask all your friends and family to bring something that shows what makes them special. Print out our handy Photobooth printables and make a fun photobooth using a blank wall.
- Ask a small, local fair or festival, or even a farmer’s or flea market if you could set up a small table to raise awareness for GIST and rare diseases. You could create a backdrop using a sheet and a volunteer photographer or you can order a photobooth kit from the LRG.
IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN HOLDING A SIGNATURE GIST AWARENESS DAY EVENT, HERE ARE HELPFUL TIPS TO GET YOU STARTED:
- Rent a local venue and host a “ShowUsYourRare party with the rare theme of your choice. It can feature rare food items, rare talents, the sky’s the limit.
- Order a GIST Awareness Day photobooth kit, which includes GAD and Rare themed props, build yourself photobooth stand and backdrop. You can also hire a photographer who has the ability to immediately email you your photobooth photo so you and your party guests can upload to social media with the hashtag #ShowUsYourRare in real time
- Dream big! Try to fit as many people as you can in a photo to #ShowUsYourRare and that we are all in this together.
GIST Awareness Day event locations:
GIST Meeting Mumbai – view gallery
Gist Awareness Day Celebration conducted by Max Foundation/Friends of Max here in Mumbai India.
June 13, 2015
#ShowUsYourRare at the State Fair Meadowlands
State Fair Meadowlands, East Rutherford NJ
July 3, 2015
GIST Chile Group GIST Awareness Day Event
July 4, 2015
Pfizer Roundtable in Mexico
Pfizer Roundtable in Mexico with media and interviews with researchers about GIST Awareness Day
July 9, 2015
Celebration of GIST Awareness Day – Kenya
Featuring speakers to talk about GIST, Nutrition and Guidance and counseling.
The Nairobi Hospital
Doctors’ Plaza Parking Bay
Nairobi, Kenya
July 11, 2015
GIST Awareness Member Lunch
Bethpage State Park – Bethpage
99 Quaker Meeting House Road, Farmingdale, NY 11735
July 11, 2015
12:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Miami Marlins Game
501 Marlins Way – Miami, Florida
July 12, 2015
1:10PM game start
GIST Awareness Day
Life Raft Group, Wayne NJ
July 13, 2015
Inauguration of GIST patient group
Guadalajara, Mexico
July 13, 2015
GIST case will be presented
Tabasco, Mexico
GIST case will be presented at hospital and a picture will be taken on GIST Awareness Day.
July 13, 2015
Living with GIST Webcast
11:45 AM – 12:45 PM
July 13, 2015
Awareness Building
Mexico City, , Gomez Pakacio, Durango, Mexicali, Tampico and Monterrey, Mexico
Volunteers will do awareness building and take photos asking people “I know what GIST is about, and you?” #GISTAwarenessDay
July 13, 2015
GIST Volunteers Academic Meeting in Mexico
Puebla, Mexico
GIST volunteers will organize an academic meeting with medical students and take a picture for #GISTAwarenessDay
July 13, 2015
GIST Volunteers in Mexico letter signing
GIST Volunteers in Mexico will ask doctors and medical students to sign a letter asking for coverage of GIST by Seguro Popular to be added to Fundación GIST México´s proposal
July 13, 2015
Patient meeting for GAD
Monterrey, Mexico
Patient meeting for GAD
July 26, 2015
If you are interested in hosting your own GIST Awareness Day event please contact Mildred Menos at mmenos@liferaftgroup.org for a free event start-up kit.
#ShowUsYourRare is the Life Raft Group’s most recent effort to bring attention to GIST and other rare cancers through a series of activities that let people highlight the most special, unique parts of themselves.