Mark Orton read Jeff Alt's book A Walk for Sunshine and said, "Yeah!"

Alt wrote about hiking 2,100 miles along the Appalachian Trail to raise money for The Sunshine House, the institution that cared for his brother, Aaron. Aaron was born with cerebral palsy and is developmentally disabled.

Air Force Staff Sergeant Orton is based at Travis Air Force Base in California. He used Alt's example, and turned a hiking vacation with friend Jeremy Baldwin, a college student from upstate New York into The Hike for Hope.

Starting on June 2, 2002, the two will meet near Orton's parents' home in Virginia to start a 110-mile, 9-day hike on the Appalachian Trail through Virginia's Shenandoah National Park. The Hike's fundraising goal is $5000, but Orton hopes that they can surpass that.

Asked why he's doing it, Orton answers simply, "I love to hike, and I've seen first-hand what diabetes did to my family. Many people who've developed diabetes didn't have to. That's the message I want people to act on. So why not use something I love to combat something I fear?"

"One of the best ways of preventing diabetes is to watch your diet and exercise," Orton says. "Hiking is great exercise."

To assist with the Hike's web site and publicity chores, Orton enlisted his aunt, Debi Orton, who is also diabetic.

"How could I not help?" his aunt says. "I've seen my grandmother and my mother go blind. I've gotten up at 4:30 a.m. three mornings a week to make sure I could get my mom to dialysis. I sat at her bedside while she waited to go into surgery for a kidney transplant. And now I'm seeing news reports about children as young as 11 being diagnosed with 'Adult Onset' diabetes. We need to do something to stop it."

The web site for the Hike shows one photo of Orton's grandmother, her sisters and Orton's great-grandmother. "Of the five people in the photograph, two have died from complications of diabetes, and two more are now diabetic. That scares me," Orton says.

Orton solicited donations of gear and supplies from companies specializing in outdoor recreation equipment, and has designated the Diabetes Action Foundation for Research and Education, based in Washington, D.C., as the beneficiary of the funds raised by the Hike. His aunt's company is donating the credit card processing fees for the donations taken through PayPal from a link on the Hike site.

"I want all of the money we raise to go for research and education," Orton says. "I don't want people thinking they're funding a vacation. Jeremy and I are paying our own way."

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 17 million Americans - 6.2% of the population - have diabetes. And of those, over one third don't know they have it.

Orton didn't know the statistics when he started. But with the help of the Diabetes Action Foundation, he hopes that his Hike will raise awareness of the disease and the ways of preventing it.

But Orton's most compelling reason for organizing the hike won't see it. He and his wife Stacey are expecting their first child in August, just after the excitement of the Hike winds down.

"That's where the research is needed," Orton says. "My family has such a strong history of diabetes that I'm hoping there will be a breakthrough. I'd like to think that a generation or so from now, diabetes can be cured. That's where the hope comes in."