Gary Malaer, CEO of Wuesthoff Medical Center, is serving as the chair for this year’s One Walk in Cocoa Beach. Having been involved with Breakthrough T1D for ten years now, Gary has a lot of experience and excitement to offer this year’s Walk.

Gary’s involvement began in 2005 at the Dallas Walk. The hospital that he was working with in Texas was a big supporter of Breakthrough T1D and had a walk team. Gary served as team captain for six years in Texas. He enjoyed that the Walk was a good community event for families, and brought his wife and daughters with him each year.

Wuesthoff Medical Center has been involved with our Walk for several years. Gary began working with Wuesthoff eleven months ago, and in this short time he has increased their involvement with Breakthrough T1D so much so that they are one of our platinum sponsors this year and Gary is our Walk Chair.

Working in health care, Gary felt that Breakthrough T1D was a perfect fit for him and his organization. He says that in recent years, as type 1 diabetes has started to affect more and more people, he feels it is even more important that we do our part to help move towards a cure. Gary says he is “proud to be a part of this community which is so committed to relieving the burden experienced by people with type 1 diabetes and their families, and we share the same desire to rid the world of this disease.”

Gary’s eight year old niece has T1D, and he feels that he has learned a lot more about this disease from watching her. It has helped him to better understand the hardships associated with T1D. He says it’s easy to almost become desensitized working in health care, and it wasn’t until he watched her dealing with T1D that it really hit home for him.

Gary has led the charge in helping to create a corporate leadership committee for our Cocoa Beach One Walk, including some of the top corporate leaders in Brevard. He has been instrumental in helping us to find sponsorship and support from various corporations.

Gary would like to extend an invitation to join him at the One Walk in Cocoa Beach on April 30^th, 2016 at Lori Wilson Park.