Alzheimer Memory Walk is Sept. 27
RANDOLPH, Aug. 15, 2008 – The Menig Extended Care Facility at Gifford Medical Center in Randolph is once again raising money to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association through a Memory Walk to be held Sept. 27.
The Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk is the nation’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. This year, 200,000 people nationwide will walk to end what is currently the sixth leading cause of death in America.
Since 1989, the Memory Walk has raised more than $230 million nationally to help those battling Alzheimer’s disease.
Last year, Menig contributed a remarkable $6,000 to that total. Spearheaded and organized by Activities Director Terry MacDougal, the 2007 Memory Walk was Menig’s first. Menig has raised money in other ways for the Alzheimer’s Association in the past, however. Menig is Gifford’s nursing home.
MacDougal hopes to make this year’s White River Valley Alzheimer Memory Walk another success.
“A recent study shows that Alzheimer’s is on the rise among Vermont’s rapidly aging population. An estimated 10,000 to 11,000 of our state’s residents have Alzheimer’s. National trends project 12.8 percent of aging baby boomers will develop this condition in their lifetime. That is an estimated 23,800 additional residents expected to develop this heartbreaking disease,” MacDougal says.
“As the activity director here at Menig Extended Care, it goes without saying that finding a cure for Alzheimer’s disease is very dear to me.”
Help her with this goal of finding a cure by joining the walk. All are welcome to participate. Walkers collect donations or pledges from friends and family to raise money for the cause, sign-in at Gifford and then follow a two-mile loop through the village and back to the hospital.
Sign-in for the White River Valley Alzheimer Memory Walk begins at 9 a.m. on Sept. 27 near Gifford’s new visitors’ entrance south of the hospital on Route 12. The walk starts at 9:30 a.m.
Register online at http://www.kintera.org/FAF/home/default.asp?ievent=268884 or visit www.alz.org/memorywalk and search for the Randolph walk; or call MacDougal at (802) 728-2130.