Friday morning, members of Ahmed Temple #37 Shriners and Ahmed Court #134 Daughters of Iris gathered at the Lincoln Neighborhood Service Center to discuss the 6th Annual Diabetes Walk - Stepping for Diabetes - and the importance of raising awareness about diabetes in the community.

Dr. Otis Kirksey, director of the Prince Hall Shriners National Diabetes Intitiative, opened by addressing the need to raise awareness surrounding diabetes.

"Why diabetes? We know that diabetes impacts over 26 million people in the United States and there's an additional 79 million who are at increase risk for pre-diabetes," he said. "This is a group that we are really concerned about because the research being demonstrated shows that this can be prevented."