SunTrust Bank was the route sponsor for the Sun City Center Walk to End Alzheimer’s last Saturday. Mitch Traphagen photos.
Hundreds of people, young and old, turned out at the Sun City Center United Methodist Church on a beautiful Florida autumn Saturday to show their support for the 2015 Walk to End Alzheimer’s, a fundraising effort to bring about a cure for the disease.
The event took place in more than 600 locations around the nation.
The information available at press time was that the Sun City Center event included 60 teams composed of 360 walkers. Nearly $70,000 was raised.
The sheer crowd of walkers, however, suggested that the final number could be much higher, along with the amount collected.
The walk was two miles through the community.
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that 5.3 million Americans of all ages will have Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. As the baby boom population ages, that number is only expected to grow. By 2025, it is estimated that 7.1 million people will be afflicted, a 40 percent increase in just 10 years.
There is promising research ongoing. The federal government, recognizing the imminent threat to so many Americans and even the economy as millions of citizens will require advanced care, is pushing for a cure for Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases, ideally by 2020.
With approximately $70,000 raised from Sun City Center alone, each walker held true to the T-shirts most were wearing, emblazoned with the words, “The end of Alzheimer’s begins with me.”
For more information and links to local resources, visit www.alz.org.
