This year’s Walk for Alzheimer’s brought in more than $48,000 in pledges and donations for the Alzheimer Society of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District during Sunday’s fundraiser at White Pines, surpassing last year’s mark of $45,000.
Local Alzheimer Society executive director Terry Caporossi says that all money raised through the annual indoor walk helps fund local programs and services for more than 3,000 people.
Each year, the Alzheimer Society has to raise 45 per cent of its operating budget in order to keep frontline services going.
“We always like to bring community together, and that’s one of the things, I think, that we’re most proud of - we can bring a lot of people from our community together to support the work that we do as an organization,” Caporossi said.
For Brenda St. Louis - who showed up with a fundraising team of six dubbed Team Shirley, - the resources offered by the Alzheimer Society have helped her and members of her family.
Her mother, Shirley, has been living with Alzheimer’s for six years now.
Prior to moving into Maple View Extendicare, St. Louis’ mother would take part in weekly sessions with a recreational therapist provided by the Alzheimer Society.
“She’d play games, or they would do her nails,” St. Louis said of her mother’s weekly sessions. “With Alzheimer’s, I found that she had a lot of mood swings, and we would take her there, and they’d pick her right up - like a totally different person.”
St. Louis and family members have also taken a course through the Alzheimer Society in an effort to better understand Alzheimer’s.
“It’s very hard to understand how this disease affects a person with their memory, and always repeating themselves,” she told SooToday. “You have to learn to understand that their world now is just so small, and they don’t remember what happened maybe half an hour ago, and time doesn’t mean anything to them.”
“Something that may have happened a month ago, they think it happened a week ago, or that day.”
Team Shirley has now expanded to include younger family members this year, and St. Louis says that she’s seen more and more young people taking part in the Walk for Alzheimer’s since she began taking part in the fundraiser four years ago.
“The last few years that we’ve done it, it’s amazing not only to see the older people coming out, but to see some of the younger generation now joining in and understanding,” she said.
Approximately 150 people took part in this year’s event.