Teams Raise Money for Charity

About 15 teams walked around Oakland’s Lake Merritt Sunday afternoon to raise money to help people suffering from Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, collectively known as inflammatory bowel disease, a manager of the walk said.

The first walk ever in Oakland by supporters of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America started at about 2 p.m. Sunday at the Lake Merritt bandstand off Bellevue Avenue, event organizers said.

More than 1.6 million people in the U.S. suffer from IBD, or 1 in 200 people, walk manager Lea Berhane said. “It’s sometimes referred to as the silent disease,” Berhane said.

The top team raised almost $10,000 that will go to support research into the disease and to help sufferers, Berhane said.

The main objectives of the walk were to raise money and raise awareness of the disease and teams met both objectives, she said.

Eighty-three cents of every dollar raised goes to research or to provide support to patients, she said.

Participants of the walk honored Port of Oakland Commissioner Bryan Parker as a hero who suffers from the disease, Berhane said. Parker was diagnosed while he was a student at University of California at Berkeley, Berhane said.

--Bay City News