The Friday, May 8 walk was for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and one of their own students, Carter Zimmermann, who suffers from type I diabetes. The school raised roughly $3,000 for Carter and the JDRF.
Carter, who was diagnosed with type I diabetes before he was two years of age, has to take multiple doses of insulin by injection a day. He's currently on a waiting list for an insulin pump which will help control his diabetes without the myriad injections.
Type I diabetes occurs when the body's immune system attacks the pancreas, killing the insulin-producing parts of the organ. Without insulin to regulate the body's sugar, the victim of the disease sickens and dies.
Until early in the twentieth century, there was no cure for diabetes, and those who had it would simply waste away until they died. Even today, with insulin injections, control of type I diabetes in some cases is so precarious that children, and adults, still die from it despite doing everything they're supposed to do.
Thanks to research funded in part by JDRF, though, ways to transplant and restore damaged parts of the pancreas appears to be just around the corner, meaning that someday, perhaps those suffering from type I diabetes can be cured rather than subject to a life-long medical regimen.
Needles and insulin, despite the reason for the trek on Friday, seemed far from Carter's mind as he trotted around the rink with his friends, high-fived his mom, and hugged J.D. the JDRF dinosaur.
The mascot was on hand to deal out high-fives and hugs to students as they made laps of the rink.
In addition to the roughly 120 students, teachers and members of the community came out to walk the rink with J.D., Carter and the Christ King students.
Originally slated to take part in West Stettler park, the dreary rainy day prompted the event to move indoors. Despite the last-minute venue change, though, the event was spectacular, Melissa Zimmermann, Carter's mother and member of JDRF, said.
She said the school – both staff and students – have been wonderfully supportive of Carter as he battles the disease.
“(It's) amazing the camaraderie, support and accomplishment these students are demonstrating with this event,” she said.
The students at the school spent the month prior to the walk raising money for the event, surpassing their goal of $2,000.
The 2015 Walk to End Diabetes happens June 14 in Red Deer. Communities are holding smaller walks leading up to the big regional one, which is what Friday's event accomplished here in Stettler.
Carter, though normally shy, created a video which he and his mom posted on Facebook, encouraging people to walk in the Red Deer, or other local, Walks to End Diabetes.
The video had amassed an amazing 100,000-plus views by Friday's walk, showing that people do, indeed, want a cure to be found.