FLORIDA MOM MAGAZINE - October '08 - Supporting Alzheimers - Florida Mom's FUN-draiser
 Sandy Catallo knows what it is like to live with Alzheimer’s. Her husband, George, is in the late stages of the debilitating disease and she is doing everything in her power to support the Alzheimer’s Foundation in its search for a cure.
She came out to volunteer on September 13th, at the Florida Mom Magazine’s FUNdraiser for the Alzheimer’s Association held in front of the 1-800-flowers in the Intracoastal Target Shopping Center. “My husband is in late stage Alzheimer’s and is now at home with 24-hour care,” said Catallo. “The Alzheimer’s Association has been very helpful to me. They put me in touch with Carol Neil of the Hope Adult Daycare Services and he loved going there. That was his office. From there, I just admire what she (Neil) has done and we formed this charitable organization, Friends of Hope. Now I am very involved in supporting this organization. I believe in the Alzheimer’s Association and its research to find a cure. It’s taking over the world and it is the cruelest disease that I know of. It’s cruel to everyone that is involved. Living with the disease has made me want to help.”
The FUNdraiser, which had the Jaguars ROAR Cheerleaders, a City of Jacksonville Fire Truck, SpaceWalk bounces, snow cones, face painting, and a 45 basket raffle, was held to raise money for the Hope Adult Daycare Services team who walked in the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk on September 20th. Businesses that came out to support the Alzheimer’s Association at the event include Curves, Greenwood School, 1-800-Flowers, Sweet & Sassy, Dr. Cullum’s HealthSource, Comfy Soles, Kids by the Hour, Cummer Art Gallery, the Jacksonville Zoo, Jazzercise, Spacewalk of Jacksonville, Cookie Lee Jewelry, and the Sylvan Learning Center. Many volunteers from the Alzheimer’s Association were on hand to help during the event.
 Mark Moore, a trainer at the Alzheimer’s Association came out to support the Florida Mom Magazine event. “There is so much competition for dollars these days,” said Moore. “We have really reached the point, where we need some sort of infusion of dollars soon.”
Moore said there are 4.5 million people a year diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Without a vaccination against the disease, they expect by 2050, that number will be between 11 and 16 million people diagnosed with the disease.
“Of all the dementia’s, Alzheimer’s is the most common,” said Moore.
Moore said volunteers are crucial to their organization. “Nobody has the money to fund full-time positions, so the more we can get people to volunteer, the better off we are,” he said. “Currently we have about 30-50 volunteers, but we could always use more. We need them for the support groups and for one-on-one meetings with clients.”
Mary Orser, who manned a booth at the event for Curves, said her mother Pearl Orser suffered from Alzheimer’s. “It’s very personal,” said Orser. “It’s in my family and I would really like to find a cure. The Alzheimer’s Association was very supportive to me as we went through that with her. I strongly believe in Curves and if we continue to work out and stay busy hopefully it will help us avoid having that happen to us.”
The September 20th Memory Walk took place at the Jacksonville Landing. It had been raining all morning, but upon arriving, their were still well over three hundred people ready to support and walk for a great cause. Tish Sheeshley, the North & Central Florida Alzheimers Association’s CEO grabbed the microphone and got the crowd energized just as the rains began to stop. The horn sounded and the crowd proceeded to walk over the Main street and Acosta bridges, before coming back to the Landing. It was a great finale to a lot of worthwhile work for a great cause. |
|
