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Ford Team From Kansas City Assembly Plant Walks to Cure Diabetes

20 September 1999

Ford Team From Kansas City Assembly Plant Walks to Cure Diabetes

    CLAYCOMO, Mo., Sept. 18 -- More than 400 employees from
Ford's Kansas City Assembly Plant, along with family, friends and neighbors,
gathered in Shawnee Mission, Kansas today to help find a cure for diabetes.
    The Kansas City Assembly team joined thousands of others who gathered at
Shawnee Mission Park to participate in a 10K "Walk to Cure Diabetes."  The
annual event raises funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation (JDF), the
world's leading nonprofit, non-government funded research of diabetes.  The
Kansas City Assembly team raised an estimated $29,000 in pledges and
donations.
    "About 135 million people worldwide, including 16 million Americans,
suffer from diabetes and every three minutes someone in the U.S. dies from
this disease," explained Plant Manager Gerry Minor. "This is unacceptable.  We
must find a cure.  That's why we're here."
    Ford Motor Company's involvement with JDF began 16 years ago
when the company hosted its first JDF walk fundraiser and since then, support
for this cause has grown.  In 1999, for the first time ever, Ford formed a
global walk team with more than 25 locations participating in 11 JDF walk
sites around the world.

    Site locations and dates are:

    Virginia Beach, Virginia    Sept. 18    Lake Orion, Michigan    Sept. 26
    Kansas City, Kansas         Sept. 18    Warren, Michigan        Sept. 26
    London, England             Sept. 19    Chicago, Illinois       Oct. 10
    Cleveland, Ohio             Sept. 25    Melbourne, Australia    Oct. 17
    Louisville, Kentucky        Sept. 25    Atlanta, Georgia        Oct. 30
    Ann Arbor, Michigan         Sept. 26

    "Our company-wide goal this year is to recruit a Ford team of at least
3,600 walkers worldwide and raise $360,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes
Foundation," explained Edsel B. Ford II, great grandson of the company's
founder, and chairperson of the global team.
    "It's estimated that more than 48,000 Ford employees and their family
members have diabetes.  My son, Albert, is one of them," he continued.
"Supporting diabetes research through events like the Global Walk is one small
but very effective way we can contribute to finding a cure."
    The Kansas City Assembly Plant, with 4,549 employees, builds the Ford
F-150 and Contour and Mercury Mystique.  Last year it produced more than
404,083 vehicles.