Groups around Lincoln raise awareness for the Alzheimer’s Longest Day
June 21 is the summer solstice – the longest day of the year.
But for those affected by Alzheimer’s, it’s a day to honor those battling the disease, using the slogan, “The day with the most light, is the day we fight.”
A group in Havelock held their event a week early on June 15 with a concert.
Four bands played at Joyo Theater, each one having a connection to the disease.
Richard Bretta lost his grandmother to Alzheimer’s.
“It was painful for our family to watch, and my good friend Jeff, his mom was taken, and I went through it with him,” Bretta said.
Other groups also got a jump-start on their Longest Day activities.
At Noah’s Ark Daycare in Lincoln, there was coffee for a cure on Friday, June 14.
Children brewed and served coffee, all donated by the Coffee Roaster in Lincoln.
“It makes me feel happy that people with Alzheimer’s are probably going to get better,” said Emily Seebohm, one of the kids running the fundraiser.
Noah’s Ark Director Lena Wimes recently lost her grandmother to Alzheimer’s.
After the kids learned more about the disease, she wanted to find a way to get them involved.
“You think of Alzheimer’s with older age, so connecting the younger age to that, it certainly does have an impact on them, too. Many of them also have a personal loss with that,” Wimes said,
The money from this fundraiser will go towards Pete Ferguson’s Putt to End ALZ event on Friday, June 21.
The Longest Day is also time for personal passions.
Lori Mueller now holds a scrapbooking event for the Longest Day after losing a friend to Alzheimer’s in 2015.
She says paper crafting is good for the mind, which is the tool Alzheimer’s affects the most.
“We all share the same interest in creating and cherishing memories, and that’s the thing Alzheimer’s kind of steals away from us,” Mueller said.
All these events, held for one common cause: to find a cure for a disease that affects 5.8 million Americans, 34,000 of them in Nebraska, and do it together.
