A Breakthrough T1D walk to raise money for Type 1 diabetes research was held Nov. 24 at the Durant Multi-Sports Complex.
The event included not only a walk around the football track, but also a ribbon cutting, activities for children and prizes for people who donated.
“This is the second time we’ve done it,” said Melissa Brewer, chairperson for the walk. “We did a trial walk in April that went well. So, this walk has already raised triple the money we raised in April, so we’re going to continue doing it annually in November now.”
The event raised more than $4,000.
“We’re excited that it grew this much between walk one and walk two and we hope that the next walk is even better, and we’re really thankful for all of our sponsors who donated and all the people who came out to join us today,” Brewer said.
Paris Al-Khateib, co-chair of the walk, said she has family and friends who have Type 1 diabetes, so for her, it is a personal organization that she wants to help fund.
“What we’ve been doing, we’ve sold shirts, we’ve had bake sales,” she said. “We have all of these teams that are here to fund raise and we’re going to make a couple of laps around the track.”
Before the ribbon cutting, Brewer spoke about why she decided to start having the walk.
“My son Rhett, just a couple of weeks after his fifth birthday September two years ago, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes and I really wanted to be able to get in and get involved with the community in a way that he didn’t feel so alone.”
Buy chance on social media, Brewer met her best friend, Kalley Radford, whose 9-yearold daughter Kennedy was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes a month after Rhett.
“So, they’ve really been able to go through this journey together in a way that makes both of them feel less alone and I wanted to do that for more families,” Brewer said.
“I think that it is something that we just met by chance but to have a way for parents of Type 1 children, or even adults with Type 1 diabetes, that they could kind of talk to the kids more about what it’s like. I wanted the community to come together around Type 1 diabetes and even between the April walk and the walk we’re having right now, we’ve more than doubled the number of people here today. We have way many more sponsors than we had last time.”
Organizers plan for the walk to be an annual event to be held in November.
