ADA Step Out Walk – Fighting the Scourge of Diabetes

This Saturday, September 13, we come together at the Grand Park Sports Complex in Westfield, Indiana to participate in the American Diabetes Association Step Out^® Walk: Indiana. This important event brings together the diabetes community, volunteers, and advocates to raise awareness and provide critical support to those affected by diabetes. The walk benefits diabetes research, education, management, and prevention, supporting ADA’s mission to prevent and cure diabetes, and to improve the lives of all people affected by diabetes. All are invited and welcome to show-up on Saturday to participate.

As Indiana’s 2025 Step Out Walk Chair, I write today to share why this event matters to all of us, whether or not we are currently directly affected by diabetes. Diabetes has become one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in the world. Nationwide, over 38 million people have diabetes and almost 100 million have prediabetes. Every 26 seconds, someone in the United States is diagnosed with diabetes. In Indiana, nearly 700,000 people are living with diagnosed diabetes and that number grows by almost 45,000 every year.

The American Diabetes Association totals the cost of diabetes in the United States at over $400 billion, accounting for about 11% of overall spend. However, we often see the cost of this disease climbing to 25% or more of overall spend for our self-funded clients. Potential complications from diabetes include kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, foot problems, and eye problems but a cursory search reveals many other risk factors for those living with this disease. The economic and human costs of diabetes are staggering.

What is diabetes? Here are some ADA bullets explaining it:

• When you have diabetes, your blood glucose (blood sugar) levels rise too high.  
• The three most common types of diabetes are type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes.   
• In type 1 diabetes, your immune system mistakenly destroys the beta cells in your pancreas that make insulin and you need to take insulin to live.   
• In type 2 diabetes, your body does not make enough insulin or does not use the insulin it does make well. Type 2 diabetes is the most common type of diabetes.   
• Gestational diabetes develops during pregnancy. Blood glucose levels may or may not return to normal after giving birth. Even if they do return to normal, you have a high risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life and need to be tested regularly. 
• When your blood glucose levels are high, but aren’t high enough to be diagnosed with diabetes, you have prediabetes.  
• Prediabetes can lead to type 2 diabetes and its many serious complications, such as heart disease and stroke.   
• It’s possible for people with prediabetes to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes.  

Tomorrow morning (September 8, 2025) at 10am, Craig Jackson, from Citizens Energy Group, and I will be on WISH-TV 8 Life. Style. Live! to talk about the the Step Out Walk and the mission of the American Diabetes Association. We are grateful for the chance to highlight this important event for our community.

As we build to the big event this week, I want to thank the many people who have stepped up to support the American Diabetes Association and the Step Out Walk: Indiana. Our corporate partners have shown up with direct financial support as well as with teams to participate directly on Saturday. Please know that it’s not too late to get involved in this year’s event and we invite you to join the many who have already committed to showing up on Saturday at Grand Park.

In addition, please put the ADA’s State of Diabetes Indiana event on your calendar for November 19, 2025. This year’s event Chair is Susan Brock Williams from Eli Lilly and promises to be another great opportunity to raise awareness in the fight against diabetes.