ellienators get 'shirted'



Thanks to our fabulous artist/friend Rachel Mindrup for developing our idea into a design for Ellie's 2011 JDRF Walk for the Cure T-shirt!  Rachel generously donated her time and talents to the design and in return we will feature her business logo on the back of the shirt. 

How did we come up with just a crazy idea?

Our family sat around one weekend afternoon and brainstormed ideas for the shirt.  Since this is Ellie's first year as a participant, she wanted to have a special team shirt just for her and those who will walk with her on April 9th in the Des Moines event.  Had we not chosen to design our own team shirt, local JDRF chapters come up with a sponsored design for each year.  The 2011 design is shown below and will can be purchased at the walk or earned by raising $100 for the event.

We wanted something unique, humorous and 'insider joke' funny for other T1 diabetes kids and families to giggle over.  Since Ellie now has to count carbohydrate grams for E-V-E-R-Y thing she eats, it is nice when she is able to have a carb-free or 'FREE FOOD' and not have to inject insulin when she eats it.  Many foods are carb-free, but one food in particular makes Ellie jump up and down for joy:

B-A-C-O-N

If ever there was a match made in heaven, it is:

So we already had a theme to work with, now we just needed a catchy phrase.  We threw some different ideas around and honestly I cannot even remember the other choices because as soon as Maddi described the cops scene with a girl running away with a bucket of bacon yelling "But Mom Said Bacon Was Free Food'; we all knew we had a winning idea.

The shirt itself will be yellow (the background color in the first image) and will feature Rachel's design on the front.  The back of the shirt will host the team name and any businesses that donated to the production of the shirt. 

The next step is to invite some local businesses to donate to the costs of printing.  While we are prepared and willing to pay for the shirts ourselves, I want to take advantage of the opportunity to educate with carefully selected logos. 

Even though Ellie can eat anything, it doesn't mean we don't want her (and our family) focus to be on HEALTHY food choices.  In order or to promote this, I want to ask our CSA, a local creamery, a goat cheese farm business and a few other small local places who serve whole ingredient, fresh foods or make products with sustainable ingredients.  I feel this will encourage others to ask about the logos/businesses so I can hop on up my podium to wax poetically about eating real food.

::ahem::

In addition, ANYONE who raises or donates $25 to Team Ellienators will receive a shirt from Ellie.  I mean really . . . . you know you want one because you will look über cool sporting a shirt about bacon ;)