After Saturday's Walk To Cure Diabetes on campus, walk organizer Tom Brennan owes Karen Breen a bottle of wine.

Breen, executive director of the Detroit chapter of Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or JDRF, bet Brennan a bottle of wine that donations would break $50,000 and won handily when Brennan announced Saturday afternoon that the walk had raised $75,000.

The walk, which benefited the international JDRF, kicked off from Ralph Young Field, west of Spartan Stadium, and covered 1.5 miles through campus, featuring head football coach John L. Smith as honorary chairman.

Brennan said he expects donations to continue to come in for the next month or so.

The goal of the walk, the first fundraiser for JDRF in East Lansing, was to raise $25,000 for diabetes research, said Brennan, a retired 55th District Court Judge whose two sons have Type 1 diabetes.

Smith kicked off the walk with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and words of encouragement for the more than 500 participants. The coach, who has a niece with Type 1 diabetes, said he had been waiting for an opportunity to get involved with a diabetes charity.

"It's something that we can find a cure for," he said. "Once you get around (people with the disease) and spend some time with them, you really get to see what they have to go through."

Smith, an avid skier, said he would like to plan a ski race as an additional fundraiser in the winter, and he hopes to be involved in the walk again next year. He was involved with JDRF while he was a coach at University of Louisville and said he would like to make it one of his top charities here.

Smith said about a dozen members of the football team and several coaches attended the event at his request.

After the walk, participants were fed a lunch and entertained by local rock group Frog and the Beeftones. When the food began to run low, Smith ordered 24 pizzas for the walkers.

Brennan ended the event with a prize raffle and closing remarks. He then joined Frog and the Beeftones to sing a diabetes-themed blues number.

Brennan had been helping plan the walk for the last three months.

"For a first-year event with such short preparation time, I'm just ecstatic," he said.

In the coming years, he hopes to build the event to the size of an annual walk held in Ann Arbor, which draws more than 5,000 walkers and raises more than $700,000. This weekend's East Lansing walk had both more participants and more donations than the Ann Arbor walk did in its first year, Breen said.

"This is really going to be a significant walk," she said. "This community wants this walk, and they're here to support it."

Planning for next year's walk will likely begin in the coming month, Brennan said.

"Good thing I retired because this has been a full-time job for the last three months," he said, adding that he plans to stay involved in future events.

"I'm committed to it. My two sons need a cure."