Friends and Family

I'm aiming to raise $1400 ($100 per mile) for this year's Camel's Hump Challenge. Thanks for your support!

My grandmother passed away this past year after a decade-long (probably longer in reality) battle with Alzheimer's. She had been in the hands of an amazing team at a memory care home in Maine, enjoying daily visits from my devoted grandfather and my family members. It took a long time for the disease to run it's course and it was so sad seeing her these past couple of years, still in decent physical shape but totally lacking mental faculties. This is a story that's impacted multiple elder family members in Katie and my families. A familiar story I'm sure many of you are familiar with.

I always wondered what was going on in her mind, had her brain stopped processing anything beyond the physical requirements to stay alive, or was she still alive in there and just trapped and unable to communicate? A question I'm sure many of us have pondered.

Right before she crashed, she had an incredibly lucid day where she was able to recognize photos of family members and communicate with relative clarity. I'm really grateful that family members, and Grammy, got to experience that. When they brought her to the hospital, she recited the Hail Mary prayer with clarity.

It's just wild, there's so much we don't know about this disease. While the doctors and scientists study and learn, there are many families going through the process of caring for loved ones with this disease.

This will be my 5th year doing the Camel's Hump Challenge, and it's been amazing to see the event grow from roughly a $40k annual fundraising haul to roughly $100k last year. We're running one of the country's most successful Alzheimer's Association fundraisers in terms of per participant fundraising. Which is awesome...

Because the money we're raising is going to benefit an incredibly important cause.

By participating in this event, I've committed to raising awareness and funds to advance the care, support and research efforts of the Alzheimer’s Association®.

Currently, more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease and that number is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. Our future is at risk and we must come together to change the course of this disease.

Please support my efforts by making a donation. All funds raised benefit the Alzheimer's Association and its work to enhance care and support programs and advance research toward methods of treatment, prevention and, ultimately, a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Thank you for joining the fight against Alzheimer’s disease!