Team Page ForFor Iola and Flo

Why We Ride: 

• Team "For Iola and Flo" is named after Iola Cates and Flo "Florence" Goldberg.  Iola, Leslie Blackham and Wendy Cates’ Mom, passed away in 2013 after living with Alzheimer's for several years. Flo, Nanci Goldberg's Mom, passed away in 2021 after living with Alzheimer's.  We ride in honor of Flo and Iola, and also for their caregivers.  Iola's husband, Charles Cates, was her primary caregiver; Charles Cates (aka Chuck or Charlie) passed away in 2020.   
• Iola and Charlie were married for over 50 years and theirs was a deep love. Together they raised four kids and one of the most important lessons they taught us was taking care of family and friends. Charlie  took tremendous care of Iola. When they were younger, Iola and Charlie also helped take care of both Leslie’s Grandmother and Great Aunt when were suffering from dementia; so we ride in their memory as well. Wendy also spent many hours caring for Mom and Dad as the rest of the kids pitched in as we could. Even as Iola's disease progressed and she couldn’t remember who we were, Mom continued to smile for all of us and she always remembered Dad. Even Alzheimer’s couldn’t take their love for each other away from them. And that was a gift. 
• We ride for Iola, Flo, Charlie and all Alzheimer's patients and caregivers past and present.

Alzheimer’s disease is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s, and 16 million are acting as their caregivers. 

But together, we can help change that. 100 percent of the funds raised from this event will go toward the Association’s efforts to discover methods of treatment and prevention for Alzheimer's and other dementias.