Noah's Mission Statement

All Aboard for South America...

My name is Noah Moore, and before setting sail I'd spent 19 of my 21 years in my hometown of Eugene, Oregon, with the other two unaccounted-for years in Peru and Mexico. My diagnosis of diabetes came on the day after Christmas when I was 16, and if any diabetes diagnosis could be called "well-timed," I would slap the label on mine. Within months, the Oregon chapter of the American Diabetes Association offered me the newly created advocacy position of Southern Oregon Youth Diabetes Ambassador. The title, although sometimes too lengthy to remember, brought me speaking engagements and event hosting opportunities that I had never dreamed of, specifically because these opportunities involved large audiences and thus held nightmare status. I held the Youth Ambassador position for a number of years until sadly, I was alerted to the fact that I was no longer classified as a youth. Attending college at the University of Oregon, I slipped into an advocacy identity crisis, until now...

Mission: Get information to all diabetics living non-complacent lives.

I’d had a nearly lifelong love for South America since my yearlong visit to Peru when I was four. This love, combined with a worldwide need for global outreach, revved up the outboard motor for my South American voyage. I worked as a correspondent for diabetic publications while engaging in the most non-complacent and atypical travel lifestyle possible. River raft guiding, trekking, break dancing, performing and foreign advocacy work were just some of the steps on the 11 month adventure. The correspondence was designed to increase the physical and mental wellbeing of diabetics living rigorous and abnormal lives, who needed positive influence and motivation the most; namely, youth. There are so many facets to the journey you can't afford to miss any of its’ next phase!

Diabetes doesn't limit one's life, but becomes a part of it.

Charting the Voyage...

Halloween of 2003, atop Spencer's Butte outside of my hometown of Eugene, is where the plans for my South American voyage were first conceived. Although I was only working with idealistic theories, the basic foundation was laid. On this day of sugar-coated indulgence, thoughts of the global state of affairs and a diabetic self-analysis, were the seeds that wasted no time spreading roots and growing into a master plan. Many months later, I left for Ecuador to begin the voyage of the rest of my life.

The mission statement simplifies the project into a tasty, bite-size piece: Get information to all diabetics living non-complacent lives. By using the term "non-complacent," I mean to include diabetics who live active and dynamic lives in the face of diabetes, be it through advocacy, rigorous physical activity, or just making daily regimens mesh with abnormal schedules. In other words, if you're doing something related to diabetes other than complaining, you might find at least part of my ranting interesting.

The core concept of the project is that all associated parties have nothing to lose by becoming involved. A mutually beneficial idea that relied more on noble motives than a sales pitch, seemed just crazy enough that it might actually work. Drawing on my rudimentary architectural knowledge, I realized three major project groups where necessary to achieve the stability inherent in all triangles.

The first side, jutting up towards the triangle's apex, is composed of a multitude of national diabetes publications. The different themes of the magazines ensure a larger audience than any single publication by itself. Although a major focus of mine is the diabetic youth population, limiting myself to reaching only one demographic would run contrary to my mission statement.

The second side perfectly compliments the first by leaning into it at the 60-degree isosceles apex. Foreign diabetes organizations in the countries I visited made the information dissemination possible on an international level. In exchange for empowering diabetic youth groups and aiding clinics in any other manner deemed appropriate, I was able to acquire more information about the reality of diabetes in less-developed countries. This was by far the most difficult side of the triangle to raise into place as contact information is often outdated and Spanish punctuation marks don't always maintain the same form in an email. For all I know, some poor Chilean doctor is still fretting over the mysterious junk mail messages written in gibberish that slightly resembles his native tongue.

The last and most crucial piece of the project served as the base, solidifying it into something more than a propped-up house of cards. Not only did sponsorship provide me with the most effective diabetic supplies for adventure travel, but also proved the project to be something larger than one person's adventure. The global consciousness and social benevolence of my sponsors is infinitely more impressive than the products that were sent to me, and the clinics I visited. While I won’t pretend that the shipments of supplies dramatically impacted the South American diabetes situation, genuine international outreach probably can't do harm.

With the project strongly supported on all sides, I set off on the voyage into the unknown with enough supplies to get me to my first drop point in Ecuador. Updates, diabetic travel tips, and other bits of semi-coherent rambling will continue to appear just in time to laugh readers awake with their morning coffee. Stay tuned for information about Phase 3 of the voyage departing in 2007.

taking flight