Alzheimer’s Walk coming up in Moosomin May 25

Organized by local Dementia Support Group

May 2, 2024, 4:08 pm
Ashley Bochek

A fundraising walk is coming up in Moosomin to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Society and awareness of the Moosomin Dementia Support Group.

“We have a support group here. It is the Moosomin Dementia Support Group and we were talking one day about driving into Regina to participate in the Walk for Alzheimer’s there, but then thought maybe we should just do one here instead of all of us going into Regina we would do one in Moosomin and see if we can generate a response from the community,” said organizer Bill Thorn.

“I was just thinking this morning wouldn’t it be a nice feeling at the end of the day if we can say about $10,000 was raised in the Moosomin Walk-a-thon. It’s a good fit for the community that was my thought. I think if we can do a successful one it is a community builder. All of us the people in our group have family and it would be great to see all of them taking part and building community.”

While the funds raised will go to the Alzheimer’s Society, all forms of dementia are reflected in the local support group, and all will be represented in the walk.

“The Alzhemier’s Society is the recognized body, caregivers for people with different forms of dementia are in our group. Alzhemier’s is just one part of Dementia, even Parkinsons is a form of Dementia—there is a relationship to the brain function there are several diseases, but Alzheimer’s is the best known related to Dementia.”

He said the idea for the fundraising walk came from the support group.

“We had our meeting two weeks ago when we started talking about hosting it in town instead of going out of town. We meet the second Tuesday of each month. The group has been around for about four or five years. Over the years we probably have 20 people come and go through the group. There are about eight of us who will go all the time, but people come and go through the group. Sometimes when people’s loved ones pass away they don’t need the support like they did before, but we still help people who are still grieving over the loss of their person and still come to the group and help out.”

“This is the first time the group has done a type of fundraiser in the community and we are hoping that this will let people know there is a support group available if they need support or help

“It’s the first time we are doing this. I think it is going to be good. We are only walking for a couple hours because it is graduation day. We are just going to walk from 10 until noon because we know families have other things going on that day. We think if it is promoted properly it’ll be good. We lived in Portage and born in the Neepawa area and lived in Weyburn. We have friends that I know will be supportive. Tyler is going to reach out to the Ford dealer group and contact all those guys because the dealer group most guys who are dealers now their dads were dealers, so we know the families. I was with Kinsman for many years and Shriner’s making connections. So, we are going to reach out to them and I am sure everybody else has connections they are going to reach out to. I would be disappointed if we don’t make $10,000. That is just a number that comes to mind, but I think we should be able to come up with a nice number for the Moosomin area to support. In fact, earlier today I had a phone call with the Alzheimer’s Society and if people donate because of the efforts we’ve made here they can tag it to the Moosomin Solicitation program. Like if some of my friends in Weyburn donate and they go online to donate they then can say it is because of the Moosomin Solicitation program.

“Rene Whelpton in our group is very good with computers and she is reaching out to businesses for sponsoring. Tim Hortons is going to set out some coffee and Co-op is going to do water and cookies. We aren’t going to have a lot of speeches, we are just planning on thanking everybody and have some literature to hand out. If we get a day like today it will be good. We are going to meet on the lawn at Cobblestone. That is going to be our rally point. Everybody will meet there at 10 and we are going to have drinks and cookies at 11:30. We think that there will be people there that will come and make donations at that time, but I think most of it will be from our online advertising and stuff like that. There will be a QR code thing so I don’t fully understand that, but there will be a QR code that you can use as part of the Moosomin Solicitation and they will track it in Regina and let us know. There will probably be cash and cheques that we will collect too. The funds go toward the Alzheimer’s Society and used for research. They have staff in there that give us information, they help us with keeping us in the know with the technology and anything they’re finding trying to keep everybody positive about the future.”

The Moosomin Walk for Alzheimer’s is set for Saturday, May 25.

The walk will begin at Cobblestone House on Wright Road, with Registration at 10 am and the walk starting at 10:15.

Anyone who is affected in any way by Dementia is welcome to attend support group meetings every second Tuesday of the month at 1 pm at Bethel United Church in Moosomin.