2013 JDRF Walk story

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Tuesday, October 1, 2013 • COMOX VALLEY RECORD
www.comoxvalleyrecord.com
TOGETHER BUILDING A BETTER, STRONGER COMMUNITY
Diabetes fundraiser will be Halloween preview
Fundraising walk Oct. 6 at Simms Millennium Park in Courtenay will include seven specfic sites with
different Halloween themes mapped out throughout the extensive walk
Renee Andor
Record Staff
The Juvenile Diabetes
Research Foundation’s
(JDRF) 2013 Telus Walk to
Cure Diabetes will be a bit
spookier than past years.
JDRF North Island’s family chair Mackenzie Gartside
is co-organizing the walk,
which happens Sunday, Oct.
6 at Simms Millennium
Park in Courtenay.
Gartside is a self-professed ‘Halloween nut,’ and
she’s creating a scavenger
hunt/walk to spice up the
fundraising event.
“There’ll be seven specific
sites with different themes
throughout the walk,” says
Gartside, noting there will
be haunted castles, a graveyard, a witch’s den, skull
alley, zombie pirates and
diabolical clowns at the various scavenger hunt sites.
“You get a map…and the
sites are set up throughout
Lewis Park and Simms Millennium Park so that you
kind of have to walk the
whole distance in order to
find all of the sites, so it’s
quite a bit of walking.
“I’m trying to make it so
it’s simple for the little ones
and the adults will still have
fun at it as well.”
Each station will have a
task to complete, like laying in a coffin and having a
photo taken to post to JDRF
North Island’s Facebook
page, or counting how many
skulls are in skull alley.
Participants are encouraged
to dress up in Halloween
costumes.
The event starts at 1 p.m.
at Simms, and after a hotdog
lunch and snacks donated
by Thrifty Foods, the scavenger hunt/walk will start at
2:30 p.m. Pre-registration at
www.jdrf.ca/walk is recommended, but Gartside notes
attendees can also register
at the event. A donation of
$10 per person or $20 per
family is recommended.
There will be a selection
of prizes donated by local
businesses. Tubes of glow
sticks will be on sale for $10
with proceeds going to JDRF
research.
JDRF is charitable organization focused on type 1
diabetes (T1D) research,
according to a JDRF news
It all goes
❝
into research and
hopefully something comes out
that improves
their lifestyle and
their maintenance
of the disease or
makes headway
towards finding
an overall cure for
the disease.
❞
Mackenzie Gartside
release. T1D is an autoimmune disease that lasts a
lifetime and it demands constant regulation and blood
testing — a person with T1D
requires about 1,500 needles
and 2,200 finger pokes a
year to monitor their blood
sugar.
T1D is the most severe
form of diabetes and unlike
type 2 diabetes, T1D can’t be
prevented by diet, exercise
or medication. Over 300,000
Canadians and their families are affected by the disease, and the complications
that come with it.
Gartside’s 11-year-old
daughter Payton has been
living with T1D for the past
eight years, so Gartside
understands the importance
of JDRF’s research firsthand.
“We’re raising money
so that they can do more
research in order to find …
different therapies to assist
people who have diabetes,” says Gartside, noting
advances in treatment of
some aspects of diabetes,
like retinopathy, have been
made thanks to JDRF funding. “It all goes into research
and hopefully something
comes out that improves
their lifestyle and their
maintenance of the disease
or makes headway towards
finding an overall cure for
the disease.”
Gartside notes Payton is
in good health now, but her
family knows older people
with T1D, who have developed health complications
due to the disease.
People with T1D are more
likely to be diagnosed with
celiac disease and thyroid
disease, for example, and
kidney disease is a condition
associated with longterm
diabetes, according to the
Canadian Diabetes Association.
The Halloween haunted
house tour on Oct. 30 and
31 is another local JDRF
fundraiser coming up. Five
Comox Valley houses will be
decked out with spooky creations. Participants can buy
a map showing the haunted
homes for $5, with proceeds
going to JDRF.
For more information
about these spooky events
visit JDRF North Island on
Facebook, or visit www.jdrf.
ca.
[email protected]
PAYTON GARTSIDE, 11, has dealt with juvenile diabetes for eight years. Her mother Mackenzie (below) is co-organizing the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s
Telus Walk to Cure Diabetes on Oct. 6 at Simms Millennium Park in Courtenay.
Mackenzie, a self-described ‘Halloween nut,’ will inject a Halloween theme into
the fundraiser.