Iron 5 Keeps Riding in Battle Against Diabetes

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)The Iron Workers Local 5 Motorcycle Club has now raised a total of $179,000 for the research and treatment of diabetes, which afflicts 25.8 million children and adults in the U.S.  For ten consecutive years, the Club has hosted its “Dad’s Day Poker Run,” with the final stop at the Local 5 union hall in Upper Marlboro. Ride proceeds benefit “Dollars Against Diabetes” (DAD), an initiative of the Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) of the AFL-CIO. Annual Father’s Day campaigns by BCTD unions have helped to create and support the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) at the University of Miami in Florida, a world leader in cure-focused research. Built in 1994 with 100 percent union labor, the DRI is recognized as the most advanced research center of its kind, and has successfully reversed diabetes in clinical trials. - report/photo Lynne Hammar