A pharmacy chain with locations in Suffolk is supporting the 2016 Hampton Roads Tour de Cure by running a rest stop and having participants in the upcoming event.

“We have a blast,” said Michael LePage, store manager of the Walgreens located at the corner of Princess Anne and Dam Neck roads in the Virginia Beach. “It’s just a fun day.”

LePage said Walgreens first got involved when a friend of his asked him to do so. Walgreens has been supporting the American Diabetes Association’s Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes for some years, so it was a natural progression for the company to support the association’s Tour de Cure cycling fundraiser, as well.

The Walgreens team runs a rest stop on the 100-mile route, LePage said. It’s usually either the next-to-last stop or the lunch stop.

“We make sure they’re doing OK and power them on and cheer them on,” LePage said. “It fits in with our own mission of being a health care provider.”

LePage said Subway provides the lunch at the lunch rest stop. Other rest stops offer peanut butter sandwiches, bananas, pretzels, peanuts, Gatorade and other refueling products.

“We interact with the riders and cheer them on, and they cheer us on. They turn around and thank us,” LePage said.

The rest stops also include medical teams from the Western Tidewater Medical Reserve Corps and bicycle repairs from local bike shops.

In addition to volunteering, some employees have gotten into riding the shorter routes in the last three or four years, LePage said. One of them even does the 100-mile route.

“We’ve kind of got our hands on a little bit here, a little bit there, and try to help out as much as we can,” LePage said.

He said about a dozen Walgreens employees support the rest stop every year.

“With Tour de Cure, like any of the other organizations we help, our whole part of this is just to raise awareness of diabetes. Even in our own organization, by participating we raise awareness for diabetes.”

The 2016 Hampton Roads Tour de Cure will take place April 30, beginning and ending at King’s Fork High School. The route options are 10, 25, 65 or 100 miles.

There is a $30 registration fee and a $200 fundraising minimum. The fundraising goal is $450,000; so far about $137,600 has been raised.

Visit www.diabetes.org/hamptonroadsvatour for more information about the fundraiser.