The Spare a Rose campaign kicks off on February 1.

The idea, as the title suggests, is that if you spare a rose in the bouquet of flowers you will (likely) buy your significant other for Valentine’s Day, and donate that money to Life of a Child, a child with diabetes will get insulin for a month. If you decide to spare a whole dozen, that means a year of insulin.

In trying to think of the best way to equate the cost of your donation, I tried looking up things $5 can buy. My thought process was that if you went without [thing you can spend $5 on] just once, that money can go to a great cause.

This search led me to http://hackthemenu.com/. Now I know prices vary by region, but for the most part (based on this site’s data, so take that with a grain of salt) we’re talking about skipping one trip to Starbucks so a child in need can have enough insulin to live for another month.

It’s sometimes difficult to put problems like this into proper context when we, the diabetes online community, are waging wars of insulin pump and continuous glucose monitor coverage with our insurance companies. Or we’re not sure which insulin pump is right for us and need to conduct trials of the latest technology. Or our frustrations when our latest CGM sensor only lasted 20 days instead of 28. These are all issues and concerns that are worth the time and energy devoted to them. I’m just asking that we all spare a little bit of that advocacy and collectively focus it on this campaign for the next two weeks. If you’ll excuse the hyperbole, your support can mean the difference between life and death.

Once we’re finished, we can resume our regularly scheduled shenanigans.

Go to http://sparearose.org to learn more about the campaign, make a donation, and find out how you can help spread the word yourself if you’re feeling particularly enthusiastic.

Click. Donate. Give Life. Share. Rinse. Repeat.