Walk to End ALZ

Every 67 seconds someone in the United States develops Alzheimer’s disease. That means for the average reader, by the time you have reached the end of this post, three people will have been diagnosed. As someone who has seen the affects of Alzheimer’s first hand, I knew I wanted to participate in the Walk to End ALZ. I also wanted my brothers to participate with me as so many people in our chapter have lost family members to ALZ, currently have family members battling ALZ or know someone who has been affected. The Walk to End ALZ is a great event where everyone can celebrate the research being done to find a cure and to raise awareness.

APO participated in the two mile walk through campus and downtown was able to fundraise over $800! Coming from someone who has participated in the walk for the past two years, I was thrilled to see APO contribute that much and work to make this walk a big event on campus. I wanted my bothers with me to support a cause close to my heart, but what I got was so much better. Brothers individually told me how happy brothers were to be participating in the event and shared how it had affected them personally.

The best part of the night is the opening ceremony. Everyone who registers for the walk gets a different colored promise garden flower. Every color represents a different way that they are connected to ALZ. I always get a purple flower, showing that I have lost someone I loved to ALZ. Blue represents a walker who currently has ALZ, yellow represents a caretaker of someone with ALZ, and Orange is for advocates, people who envision a world without ALZ.

In the opening ceremony, participants are asked to raise their flowers according to their color, one color at a time. This gives me chills every time to see how many people in our NRV community have been affected by this degenerative disease. After the walk everyone “plants” their flower in one collective garden. All the flowers stand together, all the colors intertwine, and all of the hope for a future without ALZ is nourished with each participant.

Two miles, one hour, and one night is all the Walk To End ALZ asks of us. In return I hope to give back a cure so one day the end of this post can be reached with the outcome of three ordinary people; three people who are happy, healthy, and pain free.

Edited By: Megan Burpo