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Walk for hope. Walk for a loved one. Walk for a cure.

Late October, nearly a hundred participants across 19 teams in LaGrange are set to spend their morning walking to end Alzheimer’s Disease.

The annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s will be held at Granger Park on Saturday, Oct. 26, starting at 9 a.m. with opening ceremonies at 10 a.m. Participants will walk along The Thread to raise money for Alzheimer’s research and care, many in the name of a loved one stricken with the debilitating disease.

Leslie Holland, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for the Alzheimer’s Association in Georgia, said the walk isn’t just about raising money. 

It is to raise money to help us help the Alzheimer’s Association continue our programs and services and our advocacy work, but it’s also a way to celebrate caregivers, celebrate people living with the disease, and show that we are all in this together,” Holland said.

“Alzheimer’s is such a devastating diagnosis and disease to have, but the walk itself is such a great time. It’s a lot of fun. It’s high energy, and it’s just a way to really celebrate the people who are in this Alzheimer’s world,” she said.

Money raised through the walk funds all kinds of programs and services and education, all free of charge, along with research to end Alzheimer’s Disease once and for all.

Twenty cities across Georgia will participate in the annual walk, but a little over 600 walks will be held across the country.

“It’s our largest fundraiser and the nation’s largest fund to reserve to support Alzheimer’s,” Holland said. “Some of that money goes to research, but it helps us offer those programs and services, all of that free of charge to people who need it.”

In the battle to end Alzheimer’s, the good guys are finally making some headway. Holland said we are closer than ever to ending the disease.

“For years and years and years, research has been going on, and we really haven’t been able to make a dent in the disease itself, but now we are closer to a cure than ever before,” Holland said. “Thanks to the research that’s being done, we’ve got a better handle on things that we can do to mitigate risks, lifestyle-wise.  But then we also, finally, for the first time ever, have two treatments that have been approved by the FDA and by Medicare that will actually slow the progression of disease.”

“It’s a very exciting time. We’ve never had this kind of hope before, and so that’s part of why the walk is important and so much fun because we can celebrate that we are making progress,” she said. “Somewhere in the world, there is research being done every minute of the day, and  it’s working.”