SEQUIM – A team of at least 17 dressed-to-the-hilt members will ride in a colorfully decorated Discovery Memory Care bus to Silverdale on Saturday for the Alzheimer’s Association 2010 Olympic Peninsula Memory Walk.
Sheila Linde, the Sequim Alzheimer’s disease and dementia care center’s director, and Pam Scott, community relations director, will lead the team to the event in hopes of raising at least $3,000 for Alzheimer’s research.
The Discovery Trailblazers team has raised $2,500 already, Scott said, which makes it a leader in the fundraising competition.
The team is composed of Discovery Memory Care staffers and family and friends of residents at the center, 408 W. Washington St., in Sequim.
The team is sponsored by KWA HomeCare.
“Our staff has great compassion for the residents we care for and are passionately dedicated to do their part in finding a cure and an end to this horrible disease,” Scott said.
Coordinator Stephanie Watson of the Alzheimer’s Association’s Western and Central Washington State Chapter said that as far as she knew, no other groups from Clallam and Jefferson counties had registered for the Silverdale event.
Sixth leading cause of death
Alzheimer’s disease has become the sixth leading cause of death in America, leaving in its wake an estimated annual cost of $172 billion, Scott said.
“A new person is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every 70 seconds in the United States,” Scott said Monday at the care center that houses 40 “adopted family members.”
The Discovery Trailblazers team will be decked out in T-shirts, necklaces, bracelets and ball caps “with bling,” Scott said.
“The idea is a fun day but with a serious undertone,” Linde said. “Everyone who comes here, we believe they have every right to have a quality of life.”
Money raised at Silverdale’s Waterfront Park will go to the Seattle chapter of the national Alzheimer’s Association.
Beginning at 10 a.m., memory walkers will participate in 1.2- and 3.2-mile walks along Bayshore Drive in Silverdale, with a closing ceremony and celebration for the fundraiser at noon.
Delay onset
Linde said a healthy diet, physical exercise and working out all parts of the brain are ways to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s, which is hitting baby boomers in their 60s and 70s, the time when the disease commonly sets in.
Money needs to be raised for research efforts, Linde said, “because there is no cure for this disease.”
Discovery Memory Care has 40 apartments, an activity room, family room, courtyard, sitting room, dining room, spa, salon and a 100-yard-long hallway, commonly called “Main Street,” which intersects with a shorter hallway called “Hollywood.”
Its walls are lined with black-and-white portraits of old Hollywood stars such as John Wayne, whose famous cowboy photo is prominently displayed.
The Discovery Trailblazers team is looking for additional support from the community and asks that donations be made to the online website headquarters at http://tinyurl.com/2eq6sa8.
Direct donations accepted
Direct donations can be made by phoning Scott at 360-683-7047 or they can be dropped off at the center.
Scott said she would be happy to pick up donations at a home or business.
Donations are tax-deductible.
For more information about the Silverdale fundraiser, phone Watson at 206-529-3874, e-mail her at stephanie.watson@alz.org or see http://tinyurl.com/26ohtmq.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
