I’m not very lucky when it comes to winning contests.
I’ve never won more than $20 on a scratch ticket. I’ve bought countless raffle tickets for vacations and goodie baskets and fancy jewelry, to no avail. I’ve tried guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar in the hopes of getting the exciting prize, but I always fail to come up with a winning number.
I guess I’m an optimist, though, because I keep on entering these contests. After all, it doesn’t hurt to try, right? And, much to my pleasant surprise, it actually recently paid off!
I found out via Twitter that two organizations, Diabetes Sisters and Myabetic, were jointly hosting a giveaway during Diabetes Awareness Month. Myabetic makes a variety of fashionable and functional diabetes supply cases, which four lucky people had the chance to win throughout November. Diabetes Sisters provides support, resources, and education to women with diabetes.
The rules were simple: You’re allowed to enter via social media (Facebook, Twitter, and the Diabetes Sisters website) once a day. Your post could have said anything, as long as you remembered to use the hashtag “MyabeticGiveawayDS”. It couldn’t have been easier, so I decided to give it a shot—ha ha, diabetes humor—using my Twitter account.
Week 1 of the contest came…and went. I didn’t win. Week 2 passed uneventfully. By the time Week 3 rolled around, I was feeling less hopeful about my chances in the giveaway. I’d been getting excited about the prospect of winning a new supplies bag; after all, my current one was looking a little rough around the edges. One of the zippers on it no longer worked and the exterior was tattered. It could still hold my stuff, but I was definitely on the fast track to needing a replacement.
So at the start of Week 3, I posted my tweet with cautious optimism and crossed my fingers. Soon after that, I received notification that I’d actually WON! I eagerly sent an email to Heather from Diabetes Sisters (who is a wonderful human being and blogger—check out www.unexpectedblues.com) to see what I needed to do next.
The following step was fun for me because it meant it was time for some online shopping. As a giveaway winner, I was allowed to choose ANY bag I wanted from the Myabetic website. Some preliminary browsing showed me that this wouldn’t be easy. There were more styles and colors to choose from than I’d imagined, so I had to work on narrowing it down.
I wound up choosing the classically styled Banting supply case in black leather. It measured the same as my old case, so I knew it would fit into my purse. I also had the advantage of knowing what the inside of the case looked like, due to the product photos featured on the Myabetic website. After reading about the case’s specs, I was sure that it would be a suitable replacement.
When it arrived in the mail mere days later, I was more than pleased with it. It didn’t come across as a medical supply case; rather, it was sleek, well-designed, and inconspicuous. There were a bunch of small compartments within the case that I could use to store virtually any item I wanted, and I loved that there were multiple banded loops sewn in the case for tubular items such as test strip vials and insulin pens.
A few weeks later, I’m still loving my new supply case. I feel more organized and stylish, seeing as the case perfectly matches my purse. I have to give a huge thank you to Diabetes Sisters and Myabetic for sponsoring a terrific giveaway and providing me with a much-needed new case!
