WCHS to host third annual Alzheimer's walk

Alexis Barker
NLJ News Editor
 
Whether you simply support awareness of Alzheimer’s disease, have cared for or supported someone with the disease, have lost a loved one to Alzheimer’s or are engaged in your own battle with the degenerative disease, there is a color to represent you and your battle. Alzheimer’s tears memories apart and breaks down even the strongest people, according to Denice Pisciotti, a member of the Community Service Involvement Committee at Weston County Health Services, which organized the annual  Alzheimer’s Awareness Walk. 
Everyone who participates in the walk on Sept. 28 will receive a large flower to place in the “promise garden” with a special message to themselves, a loved one or people in general about Alzheimer’s and the destruction it causes in people’s lives every day, said K.C. Bergstrom, another member of the organizing committee. Each flower will be different colors depending on each individual’s journey, she said. 
While this is the third annual walk hosted by the facility, Pisciotti said, employees from WCHS have actually participated in an Alzheimer’s awareness walk for four years, the first being in Rapid four years ago. 
“The first time we went to Rapid, and then we decided that we wanted to do one in Wyoming. So K.C. got the ball rolling,” Pisciotti said. 
“I decided that we need to have one for our town because working here (at WCHS) you see firsthand the devastation that Alzheimer’s causes, emotionally and financially, for residents and their families,” Bergstrom said. 
Not only does the committee host the walk, it also holds annual bake sales to raise money for the Wyoming Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. 
“We have a group here we like to call the “WCHS Forget Me Nots” and every year we raise money for Alzheimer’s,” Pisciotti said. “Every year the fundraising gets bigger. We started in house with selling shirts and having a bake sale, but we have now expanded that into the community.” 
The awareness shirts were designed by Mackayleigh Shultz, certified dietary manager for WCHS. They can be purchased by following the link on the Weston County Health Services website before Sept. 1. Shirts cost less than $25 and have two elephants, the animal chosen to represent the disease, as well as a phrase showing support for Alzheimer’s awareness. 
“This year we are also adding a bake sale for the community at the Sept. 19 farmers market at the Weston County Fairgrounds. There will be a table with all kinds of baked goods with all proceeds going towards the cause,” Pisciotti said. 
This year’s walk, as in previous years, is free to participants, although Pisciotti noted that donations are always welcome and can be made during early registration at the website alz.org or on the day of the walk.  
Registration done on the day of the event will start at 10 a.m. with the walk beginning at 11 a.m. The walk will begin at WCHS and go to Centennial Park, where there will be snacks and water for participants. 
“People can stop at the park or they can continue back to the facility,” Pisciotti said. All participants will get their colored flower to be planted at the facility after the walk, she said. 
Strollers and dogs are welcomed for the walk, Bergstrom said. 
Both Pisciotti and Bergstrom made it clear that the group of “forget me nots” at WCHS are simply striving to bring community awareness to a disease that Newcastle resident Homer Hastings says causes loved ones to “lose them twice.”