Community Run and Rally Donates $6,000 to Fight Diabetes

Representing the Montville Community Run and Rally, Glen Mathieu handed over $6,000 Thursday to the American Diabetes Association.

He also handed over the rally, as the AAA Lions Club, a major backer of the event this year, stepped in to take over.

The donation event took place at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London.

Bikers from all across the region participated in the Second Annual Community Run and Rally and the Parade of Thunder on June 5, and people came out for food, entertainment and more.

Mathieu and Jeanmarie Martin, who worked together to bring the event to life, are getting married next year, and Mathieu said the combination of events was just too daunting.

"By February," Mathieu says, "I didn't have a life." He says that if he can't get involved at 100 percent, he wouldn't feel right about it.

Richard Douglas, vice president of the AAA Lions, a regional Lions club, applauds Mathieu and Martin for the success of the event, and promised that he will be "picking (Mathieu's) brain" as the run and rally rolls around again.

Mathieu believes that the Lions will "take the footstep and make it bigger."

The success of the Second Annual Montville Community Run and Rally, he says, was because of the support of the community. There were 29 individual business sponsors, and the Town Council supported the event, as well, and donated several thousand dollars' worth of in-kind services.

Donations from other groups, such as the food service giant Aramark also made the event a success, says Evan Shaad, the AAA secretary.

Douglas says there was a lot of support from within the AAA Lions Club, as well. The American Legion and New London motorcycle clubs also had a hand in the positive outcome of the event, Douglas said.

This year, the Lions are hoping to have another successful run and rally. The bands want to come back, Douglas says, and the interest in the community continues to be high.

The $6,000 that the event raised will help the American Diabetes Association work to find a cure, says Ceci Iliff, the manager of the Step Out Walk to end diabetes.

The Step Out Walk is scheduled for Oct. 16 at Ocean Beach Park in New London, and the group is seeking volunteers, Iliff says.

Douglas says that he was impressed by the fact that, even with very little experience in events like the Community Run and Rally, the group could make a profit.

Mathieu says he believed in the potential all along. "With commitment, dedication and enthusiasm, anything can happen," he says.

To learn more about the AAA Lions Club, click here.