Event benefits kids with diabetes

Walkers, bikers and runners are invited to take part in the second annual Tour d’Alene on Saturday to raise money for diabetic children in the Inland Northwest.

Organizers hope to see more than 200 people participate, raising as much as $30,000 for the Shawn Higgins Memorial Fund, said Bob Bostwick, director of communications for the Coeur d’Alene Casino, the event’s major sponsor.

The Tour d’Alene, hosted by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, will begin at the Chatcolet Trailhead in Heyburn State Park on the south end of Lake Coeur d’Alene and will follow the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, which stretches from Plummer to Mullan.

Participants can determine their distance and start time, Bostwick said. The race unofficially kicks off at 8 a.m., and a complimentary lunch will be served at noon at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel.

Entry fees are $50 for those 16 and older and $20 for those 15 and younger. Prizes will be awarded in corporate, family and tribal categories.

“As we continue this, we see more and more interest in a great event and in the effort to help children with diabetes enjoy a normal life,” H.T. Higgins, a Spokane businessman, said in a news release. He founded in 1999 the Shawn Higgins Memorial Fund, named for his sister, who died of complications from diabetes at the age of 29.

The fund has supported literacy programs, purchased insulin pumps for children and sponsored camp scholarships for kids with diabetes.

An estimated 20.8 million American children and adults, or 7 percent of the population, have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association.