Alzheimer’s Walk raises more than $185,000 to fund care, support and research

More than 1,000 residents from Washtenaw County and beyond joined the Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s in the fight to end Alzheimer’s disease on Sunday, Oct. 7 at Washtenaw Community College. Participants raised more than $185,000 to fund Alzheimer’s care, support and research.

Now in it’s 27th year, the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti has raised nearly $2.5 million since it began in 1991.

“We were thrilled to see so many local residents come out to support this year’s event,” says Maggie Gibbons, Senior Walk Lead for the Alzheimer’s Association, Michigan Great Lakes Chapter. “For me, the highlight of the day was the Promise Garden ceremony, where attendees held different colored pinwheel flowers to represent the diverse reasons they all gathered to participate. It’s devastating to look out at a sea of flowers and see how many people are impacted by this disease in different ways, but it’s incredibly inspiring to think that those same people are all working toward our vision of a world without Alzheimer’s.”

In Michigan alone, there are more than 180,000 people living with the disease and 514,000 caregivers.  In the United States, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, the sixth-leading cause of death in and the only disease among the top 10 causes that cannot be cured, prevented or even slowed. Additionally, more than 16 million family and friends provide care to people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Special thanks to our National Presenting Sponsor Edward Jones, our Elite Sponsor Hillside Terrace, our Statewide Sponsor St. Joseph Mercy Home Care, Hospice and Senior Communities, and our Gold Sponsor Molex, for their support of this year’s Walk.

Donations for the Walk will continue to be accepted online through December at alz.org/walk.

Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s

The Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research.  Since 1989, the Alzheimer’s Association mobilized millions of Americans in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk®; now the Alzheimer’s Association is continuing to lead the way with Walk to End Alzheimer’s.  Together, we can end Alzheimer’s.

 

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