A mass of red balloons floated up into the sky Saturday morning as the annual Diabetes Walk began, and every 20 seconds thereafter, a single balloon was released.

“Every 20 seconds a new person is diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes,” said Lesleigh Ailts, a second year Pharmacy student and member of the Creighton Academy of Student Pharmacists. “The people who walked who had diabetes also wore red hats. It was almost half of the participants.”

The American Diabetes Association had their annual walk for diabetes which involved Creighton students and saw more than 200 participants. The main goal of the Diabetes Walk is to raise awareness of diabetes and gather donations for research and treatments.

“To prevent [diabetes] you first have to understand that and be aware. And people have to support the people who have the disease, so that’s really what its all about,” Ailts said.

She and Jessica Reed, also a second year Pharmacy student and member of the ASP, helped the American Diabetes Association with marketing and getting the word out.

“We were soliciting the association and we wanted to help them out and get it out on campus and get the recruited people out walking,” Reeds said.

Chris Balden, a recruited volunteer and first year Pharmacy student thought the experience was a quality one.

“I would say that if diabetes awareness is something that you are interested in then you should go participate at this event because it is about gaining awareness about the problem of diabetes. You can go there and see many people’s lives that are affected by this disease and it is moving to see all the people that come to this event to show their support for people with this disease,” he said.

“They raised a lot of money and the ADA was really happy about that,” Reeds said.

“It’s just a quick walk, a couple hours in the morning for a good cause and hopefully the weather will be nicer so more people will come. It’s just a fun time to spend with friends and stuff,” Reeds said.