LIMA, OH (WLIO) - Every September across the country, families, caregivers, and sympathetic community members come together to walk closer towards a future without Alzheimer's.
At the start of the day on Saturday, Lima's Walk to End Alzheimer's was well over halfway to reaching their goal of $35,000 dollars by the end of the calendar year to fund research for a cure. More than 100 people participate in the walk every year. With six million individuals in the nation suffering from the disease, it's no surprise that so many in our area have been personally impacted.
"It's kind of an isolating disease and a lot of people don't know what others are going through because as a caretaker, you end up becoming more isolated because you can't leave your loved one alone anymore. So, it becomes very isolating. This is a way for everybody to get out and kind of share and know that they're not alone," said Wenda Quanrud, the Lima walk manager for the Alzheimer's Association.
Last year alone, over 600 communities participated in the national event and raised more than $90 million.
"We are the largest nonprofit fundraiser for Alzheimer's research and right now we're funding over 1,000 projects in about 51 countries. We are all over the place trying to find that cure and we've been successful in getting some drugs onto the market, helping researchers get drugs onto the market. But it also goes locally here to support programs as far as support groups for caregivers and for people that have early onset Alzheimer's and also education programs for people that work with people that have Alzheimer's," Quanrud continued.
Before the walk officially begins, participants are given Promise Flowers of different colors that they can either place in the ground or carry with them to help visualize the ways that each person attending has felt the impact of the disease in their life.
"Blue is if I'm living with Alzheimer's, purple is I've lost someone to Alzheimer's, yellow is I am a caregiver of someone with Alzheimer's, and orange is I'm supporting the cause," explained Quanrud.
The leader of the crowd in the walk carried a white flower with them. The hope is that one day when research has advanced far enough, white flowers can be carried by those who have survived Alzheimer's.
