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| Sedalia Memory Walk 1998 |
We are entering Walk to End
Alzheimer’s season, and I challenge you to join the fight against Alzheimer’s
by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s or donating $100 to support someone
who is walking.
I first walked in 1998 with a small
group—a couple from Slater, two people from the Alzheimer’s Association, and from
Sedalia—Jim and me. Oh, let’s not forget the dog, Victoria. That was it, the
Sedalia Memory Walk, 1998.
We are gearing up for Walk season
and chipping away at our Sedalia Walk goal of $34,000. Our walk is one week
from today—September 6. This morning, I went online and donated $100 in honor
of Jim’s birthday. He would have been sixty-nine Wednesday.
Fundraising for a disease is hard
work, and it seems that without a “fun challenge” it’s hard to compete for
charity dollars. Social media has been abuzz about the ice bucket challenge for
ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). The ice water videos have gone viral, netting $100
million in August for ALS. The movement is still going strong, and is in fact accelerating
and gained over $65 million in one week. I’ve seen videos ranging from my
grandchildren to mega-star celebrities like Dolly Parton.
I have to say that the ALS Association
has been brilliant to latch onto the idea which they credit to Pete Frates, a
29-year-old former Boston College baseball player who was diagnosed with ALS in
2012. The ALS Association sought to trademark the “Ice bucket challenge” but
withdrew the applications after public concern.
Why the heck would the public be
concerned? Well, for one thing, the ice bucket challenge began as a pro athlete’s
stunt giving $100 to a charity of choice. The dousing began with golfer Greg
Norman and motorcycle racer Jeremy McGrath. If you declined the challenge, you
were supposed to give $100 to a charity of your choice.
ALS is a horrible disease and when
the ice bucket challenge turned exclusively to ALS it gained attention and a
huge amount of funding. According to ALS’s
fact sheet 12,000 people in the U.S. have the disease, and my heart goes out to
those who suffer from this debilitating motor neuron disease.
Let’s shift to ALZ (Alzheimer’s). We
weren’t clever enough to latch onto the ice bucket challenge. Our premier
fundraiser is the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Our 600 Walks nationwide support more
than five million Americans with Alzheimer’s. Nearly everyone you meet has lost
a beloved relative or friend to this fatal disease. As we age, our chances of
developing the disease increases to nearly fifty-percent. Every single one of
us has a stake in finding a cure for Alzheimer’s and related dementias.
So my challenge to all my family and
friends is not to douse yourself with ice water, but to put on walking shoes
and head to the nearest Walk to End Alzheimer’s. If you can’t participate in a
walk, donate $100 to your local Walk, and then challenge five friends to Walk
or donate $100. It is easy to donate online at www.alz.org/walk!
Okay, so I realize that isn’t nearly
as much fun as watching someone get drenched with a bucket of ice water, but Alzheimer’s
is a scary disease and without a cure, it will become even scarier in the next
twenty years as we baby boomers age. So consider yourself challenged, and share
the opportunity to End Alzheimer’s Now!
You
can donate to Jim’s Team at act.alz.org/WalkSedalia.
copyright © August 2014 by L.S.
Fisher
http://earlyonset.blogspot.com
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