Lions Park will be swamped with classic rides and visitors today as the 14th annual Rock’n August festival stages its final major event of the five-day celebration of music and cars. But behind the shiny chrome car parts lies the increasingly startling truth of how one disease is affecting so many Albertans and how much the festival is doing to fight it.
Rock’n August is one of the Alberta Diabetes Foundation’s (ADF) biggest annual contributors. With a mandate to search for a cure for the potentially crippling disease, the ADF has received funding directly from Rock’n August to the tune of almost $250,000 over the last seven years. This year festival organizers have set a goal of raising $125,000 for the ADF, with an ambitious goal of $150,000 already set for 2011, when St. Albert celebrates its 150th anniversary and the festival itself rocks on for the 15th year.
What’s truly amazing is that the festival’s entire purpose is to raise money for diabetes research and St. Albertans embrace it by the thousands. Whether men and women pop the hoods of their rebuilt classic cars at the Car Roadeo or groove the night away at the Friday night street dance, everyone has purchased a button to help make sure the event brings in the maximum possible number of proceeds. Visitors from out of the province and even out of the country drop by to talk cars, making this philanthropic festival a truly international event.
And yet diabetes is more prevalent in our province than ever. According to the Canadian Diabetes Association, more than 150,000 Albertans have been diagnosed with either Type I or II diabetes, a number estimated to climb by more than half to 236,000 in the next six years. Of those diagnosed, approximately 80 per cent will die from heart disease, 42 per cent will experience kidney failure and 21 per cent will have a stroke as a direct result of having diabetes. Beyond those life-threatening statistics, individuals with diabetes in Alberta must contend with other complications and the costs of equipment and supplies.
The opening of the Alberta Diabetes Institute in 2007 gave the province a centralized research location where the best minds can conduct the best research into finding a cure for the disease. Due in no small part to the ongoing support from Rock’n August, the ADF has also been able to fund five studentships and seven pilot projects in 2010, all designed to dig deeper into how diabetes can be stopped.
Rock’n August and its dedicated volunteers deserve the thanks of not just the entire community, but Alberta as a whole for the unwavering work it does every year and its increasingly ambitious fundraising targets. They have made this festival work for 14 years, come rain or shine, and it is difficult to fathom a future August in St. Albert that doesn’t rock.
So spend your day today at Lions Park, buy your button and know that simply by strolling the rows of gleaming cars you have done your small part to help fight diabetes not just in Alberta, but worldwide.
