Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Two years ago, Sweet Home Family Medicine’s Dr. Tim Hindmarsh celebrated his 40th birthday by completing an action sports decathlon he came up with to raise money for diabetes education and to raise awareness of the condition.
In less than 24 hours he completed a schedule that included skydiving, windsurfing, slalom waterskiing, barefoot waterskiing, wakeboarding, snowboarding, downhill skiing, running, cycling and motocross.
Last year Hindmarsh decided to do it again, but that time he included a few friends in some of the events.
This year he’s doing it again, on July 13, and he’s looking for more company.
The second half of the decathlon, which he’s calling “Act Alive,” will take place in east Linn County, and Hindmarsh wants as many people as possible to participate in the cycling and running segments with him.
“I’m going to complete the motocross event in Sweet Home, cycle from Sweet Home Family Medicine to the Lebanon Airport, hop in an airplane, skydive over Lebanon, land at Pioneer Elementary school and finish off the day with a five-mile run across town,” Hindmarsh said.
“And I want people to come out and join me. The goal is simply to get out in the beautiful summer weather and make a statement about exercise and diabetes.”
The cycling event will take place at 3 p.m., beginning at Sweet Home Family Medicine, 679 Main St. The running/walking event will be at 6 p.m., beginning at Pioneer Elementary School, at 500 N 5th St. in Lebanon.
“I’ve got at least 20 people now,” Hindmarsh said. “Hopefully this will become a lot more of a community-based participation.”
Act Alive participants will be able to do anything from cycling and running the full distance with Hindmarsh to simply walking a half-mile during the final leg of the decathlon. Participants may raise money by obtaining pledges, with all proceeds going to the Diabetes Fund at the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation, which provides diabetes education scholarships to low-income east Linn residents.
The two events he’s done in the past have raised more than $10,000 for the cause. Hindmarsh, who specializes in family practice at the clinic, said people overlook the problem diabetes has become in the United States.
“We haven’t had even 1 million AIDS diagnoses since the beginning of the epidemic in 1980 or ’81,” he said. “We have nearly 21 million people with diabetes.”
The decathlon is designed to highlight the best way to avoid Type II diabetes: exercise.
“Can you imagine, if people did regular exercise and watched their eating, and could cure AIDS or cancer, that would be mind-blowing to me,” he said. “I want to encourage people to own their life or health before disease owns them.”
“Every penny that we raise through Act Alive will go to the Diabetes Fund,” Hindmarsh said. “We have a huge percentage of people in our community who need to take diabetes classes and I’m very serious about helping them.”
For more information about Act Alive, visit http://www.samhealth.org and click on the link to “Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital.” The site features a video of last year’s Act Alive decathlon, an Act Alive registration form and more.
To sign up for Act Alive, or for more information, contact Brad Canfield, public relations manager at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, at 451-7161 or [email protected].