Who We Are

Support NAC (National Assistance Coalition) is a community created by Gary Gentles and Angela Luongo, tech geeks and partners at Purlue Marketing and Design. Gary and Angela wanted to use their expertise in web design and online marketing as a way to give back to the community and spread awareness about the everyday struggles those with Type 1 diabetes face.

How can their expertise in the tech world help spread awareness you ask?

It’s simple. With Gary’s creative expertise in Web Design and SEO, along with Angela’s years of blogging experience and social media know-how, they are able to create valuable and informational content that is helpful to the Type 1 diabetic community. They know how to get it out there so people searching online locally for support and information about Type 1 diabetes can find it.

We don’t want to stop just there, our goal is to add more resources and information on other illnesses affecting people throughout the country to really make a powerful and positive network of support for people with illnesses in general.

Why we chose Type 1 Diabetes

Both Gary and Angela felt strongly about focusing on Type 1 Diabetes as a place to start this community. They both have friends and family members who struggle with type 1 diabetes every single day, however, despite their struggles, their attitudes remain positive and their stories inspiring.

“The first thing in particular that we wanted to get across in this blog is that even though Type 1 diabetes is a serious and incurable disease, there are many people that we know living with this disease that don’t let it define who they are,” says Angela.

“This web community aims not only to spread awareness and offer resources, we want to point out the stories of perseverance and positive attitudes of those who are affected and live with Type 1 diabetes every single day. If I’m having a bad day all I have to do is go to my Facebook feed. I look at my friends who are struggling with type 1 diabetes and see how positive their posts are and I’m like, ‘What the hell am I complaining about.’ They inspire me to be a better person and to take a better attitude in life. These stories need to be told more,” She adds.

Living with type 1 diabetes doesn’t mean limitations. Many people who have the disease live normal active lives, have children, play sports and can do just about anything they want as long as they take control of it.

Gary says, “We want to showcase that living with diabetes does not have to stop you from doing whatever it is you want in this life. We want to be able to help raise awareness and give resources to people around the country by providing links and resources to other networks and organizations that support Type 1 diabetes all in one place.”

The goal is to raise awareness that will also aid in raising funds to help research and find a cure.  In particular, we the whole purpose in creating the blog was to give back to our friends and fellow Long Islanders who are struggling with illnesses.

Gary also says, “Although for now, are focus is on type 1 diabetes, and we are just getting started, our goal is to add awareness to other causes and to make this a large network where people looking for support can come to for resources, links and to get in touch and learn about all the different ways they can help various causes.”

We want to foster a community of encouragement  and support.