SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) – Saginaw was covered in purple as the Walk to End Alzheimer’s kicked off with the Saginaw, Michigan Chapter.
The chapter held its second annual walk on Saturday, Sept. 21, at the Saginaw YMCA.
“This disease affects over 200,000 people in Michigan,” said Breanna Graczyk of End Alzheimer’s Disease Great Lakes Bay, “and we have over 400,000 caregivers in the state, yet the disease is not talked about enough.”
The Walk to End Alzheimer’s connects families and caregivers who share similar losses and struggles and is the largest fundraising event for Alzheimer’s care, support and research.
“My grandfather passed away from Alzheimer’s a few years ago and we’ve been supporting this and participating in the walks ever since,” said Jenny Glover of Traverse City.
“We work with a lot of families that suffer from Alzheimer’s and related dementias, and I got involved because of the families that we work with,” said Doug Hammond with Visiting Angels. “Then a few years later, it really affected my family when my mother was diagnosed with dementia, possibly Alzheimer’s, and then during the pandemic of 2020, my siblings and I lost my mother.”
Regardless of who they are walking for, everyone plants a flower in the Promise Garden.
Orange flowers mean you support the cause, yellow means you’re a caregiver, purple means you’ve lost someone to Alzheimer’s, and blue means you currently have Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.
“Women are twice as likely as men to develop Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, and the disease affects one in three women,” Grazic said, “so there’s a good chance that some of my family members, including myself and my two daughters, will be affected by it at some point.”
“Learn about the causes you care about and make sure you support them and the people around you,” Graeber said.
“I’m doing this so that one day I won’t be the story,” Grazic said. “My daughters won’t be onstage telling the stories of their mother, and my grandchildren won’t one day tell the stories of their parents and their grandmother.”
It’s a heartbreaking disease for many families, but one advocate said that without events like this, the disease would never have been fully understood or studied.
“We’re in what’s called the ‘cure era,’ where new things are coming out that can slow down or change the course of this disease,” Grazic says. “We’re not there yet, which is why this work is so important, because every step we take and every dollar we raise moves us in the right direction toward finding a cure.”
The next two walks in the region will be held on Oct. 5 in Midland and Oct. 19 in Bay City.
The Great Lakes Bay Walk to End Alzheimer’s aims to raise more than $150,000 across the region.
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