Diabetes event set for Nov. 14

A free, non-competitive walk will take place next week to help educate people about diabetes and build local support to help battle it.

The 1.8-mile walk is part of Petaluma’s first-ever participation in World Diabetes Day, and will begin at 10 a.m. on Nov. 14 at the Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility. Participants will take a leisurely walk to enjoy the birds and surrounding beauty of the area, including Shollenberger Park, and/or take a guided tour.

“This is an awareness campaign, not a fund-raising event, and there are no sponsors,” said Genevieve Foster, a nurse practitioner at the Petaluma Health Center, who is coordinating it along with her husband, David Freedman.

Foster was spurred to organize the event by her efforts, both as a health-care provider and an educator, to help people with diabetes.

“I’ve been involved with diabetes for a long time, and when I found out about World Diabetes Day, I wanted to get Petaluma involved,” she said.

World Diabetes Day is an international event that was created in 1991 by the International Diabetes Federation and the World Health Organization in response to escalating health threats stemming from the disease. Currently, an estimated 246 million people worldwide, including 40,000 children and adults in Sonoma County, are affected by diabetes. These totals have been increasing, as has the number of children developing type 2 diabetes, which formerly was called adult-onset diabetes.

Foster, along with her husband, began stirring up local interest in the event this summer. Participating groups and individuals now include the American Diabetes Association, Athletic Shoes, California Diabetes Program, Diabetes Hands Foundation, Dogs4Diabetics, Ellis Creek Water Recycling Facility, impulso, iWalk, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, Kaiser Permanente, Medtronic Cardiovascular Indian Resource Group, Northern California Center for Well-Being, Northern California Medical Associates, Petaluma Health Center, Petaluma Bounty, Petaluma Post, Petaluma Wetlands Alliance, Phoenix Theater, Rebuilding Together Petaluma, Sonoma County Shockers, Verihealth, Dr. David A. Chappell, Dr. Harendra K. Punatar, Mayor Pam Torliatt and Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey.

Also, the city of Petaluma is issuing a proclamation stating that Nov. 14 is World Diabetes Day.

Petaluma City Councilmember Tiffany Renée is enthusiastically supporting the event.

“When Genevieve Foster contacted me about World Diabetes Day, I was very enthusiastic because it affects my family,” she wrote in an e-mail to the Argus-Courier. “My daughter’s family suffers from diabetes. My good friend and their uncle, Bill Marcus, a former deputy attorney in the state Attorney General’s Office, died from diabetes complications recently. He waited for nearly a decade for a kidney transplant, having dialysis twice a week.

“As a Latina parent, I have struggled to instill my culture in our children while also learning what causes diabetes and making changes to the traditional recipes for our meals. It hasn’t been easy. My eldest daughter has had symptoms of diabetes since she was little. And now, as an adult, I am concerned for her health in the face of this disease. And having seen it’s devastating affects on her uncle, like losing toes and becoming unable to walk, I know the disease weighs on her, as well.”

Each year, cities throughout the world celebrate World Diabetes Day on Nov. 14. The date was chosen because it is the birthday of Sir Frederick Grant Banting, a Canadian physician and scientist who lived from 1891 to 1941 and was a co-discoverer of insulin.

Cities celebrate World Diabetes Day in many ways, and in Northern California, lighting ceremonies have been popular. Foster chose a walk because walking is one of the main ways to help prevent and contain the disease.

“It will be a casual walk, in which we will sometimes stop and talk,” she said.

The walk will last about one hour, and people who arrive before it will be able to have glucose testing. Wellness information tables also will be set up, and at 11 a.m., participants will gather for a special ceremony in which they form a human circle to show unity in the battle against diabetes.

Worldwide, one of the goals of World Diabetes Day is to create and sustain long-term partnerships with health-care providers and community members. Foster hopes that the event will be held annually in Petaluma.

“But my husband and I claim no ownership of it,” she said. “We want to help educate people about diabetes. People often develop diabetes due to lack of activity, and because of eating prepared, rather than fresh, foods. There is no cure for it, but it is a controllable disease: People need to improve their mobility and nutrition.”

(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)