Dear Friends and Family,
I am so pleased to announce that the 2012 Louisville Walk to End Alzheimer’s is one-third of the way to reaching its fundraising goal of $300,000! That means teams have signed up and are already recruiting members and raising funds! My personal friends and family team is well on its way to reaching our goal as well.
But there is still a lot to do for both the Louisville Walk and for my own team. And we are down to just under 10 weeks to go!!
At the team captain kick-off luncheon last week, we handed out some really useful materials with lots of ideas for recruiting team members, raising funds and motivating your team. I have heard about yard sales, block parties, workplace matching gifts, “casual for a cause” dress-down days and raffles. If you weren’t able to attend, we will have some more team captain networking events soon, and you can always call Whitney Vogel at the Alzheimer’s Association at 502-451-4266, whitney.vogel@alz.org to get the materials and talk about fundraising ideas.
I was asked to speak at the kick-off luncheon and I took moment to talk about why I walk. Because we all walk for a reason. Maybe it’s for a parent, or a grandparent. Maybe it’s for a spouse, or a dear friend. Perhaps we work with people who have been affected.
I walk for my mother-in-law, “Mom,” who is pretty much unable to recognize or interact with her family or friends or caregivers any longer. But every once in a while, even as recently as last fall (she is in her 13th year with Alzheimer’s), she will hear my husband’s voice, raise her chin from off her chest, and look around and say, “That’s my David.” I walk because I want my David to always be MY David, too. I want him to always be the gentle, kind, thoughtful and insightful man who Mom raised and that he has been throughout our 26 years of marriage. And I walk so that our daughters will not have to suffer this terrible, always fatal disease.
The new Walk to End Alzheimer’s registration website, at www.alz.org/kyin , is very user-friendly. It has email tools so you can communicate regularly with your team members and let them know how you stand on progress toward your goal.
If you haven’t registered yet, please do so right away! Set your individual or team goal and then use the website tools to help you reach it. I’ve used the email tools and found them very adaptable…I can personalize my emails or just use the language that is provided.
And once you’ve registered, please comment below and share with everyone who follows this blog why YOU walk. We need to support each other in our efforts to find a cure.
Thank you!
Bonnie
