More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease – the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. More than 16 million family members and friends provide care to people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. In Wisconsin alone, there are more than 110,000 people living with the disease and 195,000 caregivers.
With those numbers as a backdrop, a key fundraiser is coming in a few weeks in Rhinelander for the Alzheimer's Association. Outreach specialist Julie St. Pierre says the Walk To End Alzheimer's is the largest fundraiser each year for the organization. She says without the Walk, they wouldn't have as many services...
"...Some of the things that are supported by the Walk To End Alzheimer's are family and caregiver education classes that we do in the community. We do general awareness classes about Alzheimer's disease, symptoms, how it's diagnosed, we have caregiver support groups, we do those in person. We also have a telephone support group. We couldn't do any of those things on the local level without our walk..."
This year's Walk is set for September 21 at 8:00 a.m. at Rhinelander High School. There's a one mile and three mile choice of routes that go through downtown Rhinelander. St. Pierre says they are looking for individuals and teams to sign up...
"There's a number of ways people can get involved. The first is we encourage people to form teams to bring together their family and friends and form a team. Or, if people are not interested in forming a team, maybe they want to come as individual walkers themselves, they will be able to participate in the walk that way..."
Julie St. Pierre says the best way to find out more information is to go to Alzheimer's Association website at alz.org/walk which will take you to the walk website. She says from there you can search by zip code or city for the walk nearest you.
