Painting the town purple with ribbons bows on trees along Main Street and in Ballard Park, volunteers in Ridgefield are helping give the victims of Alzheimer’s disease a voice.
“The silent disease we know as Alzheimer’s slowly takes our loved ones from us,” Lexi Rodriguez of the Connecticut Alzheimer’s Association told about 20 volunteers who gathered in Ballard Park Monday, Aug. 17 to put the ribbons up.
“It slowly robs a person of their most valued possession: Their memories, their ability to speak, or do activities they once enjoyed, and eventually their life,” she said.
“It is an ugly disease that does not discriminate: men, women, both young and older adults.”
There are 73,000 people in Connecticut with Alzheimer’s disease, and five million around the country, Rodriguez said.
Purple ribbons and bows went up Monday, Aug. 17, on trees along Main Street and in Ballard Park, on trees and the gazebo.
They’re meant raise awareness in advance of the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, a fund-raising event on Sunday, Oct. 4, at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk, starting at 9:30 a.m.
The walk is the Alzheimer’s Association of Connecticut’s largest fund raising event, and brought in $322,000 last year. Totals raised have increased steadily for several years, and this year’s goal is $358,000.
People who might want to participate in the walk can learn more or register online at www.alz.org/ct.
“They can sign up as teams, they can sing up as individuals,” said Mike Davis, chairman of the walk’s planning committee. “They can donate money even if they’re not walking.”
Among the volunteers at Ballard Park was Bob Johnston of the Ridgefield Alzheimer’s Caregivers Support Group.
The group meets the second Thursday of every month, at 6:30 at St. Stephen’s Church.
“We help each other and share experiences,” Johnston said. “…Let people know they’re not alone on these journeys.
“We’re an officially sanctioned group by the Connecticut Alzheimer’s Association.”
People can call 203-313-4395 for information.
There are 177,000 caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s in Connecticut, and some 16 million people are caring for Alzheimer’s patients nationwide.
“A lot of what we do is support is care-givers,” said Rodriguez, of the Connecticut Alzheimer’s Association.
The Alzheimer’s Association maintains a hotline 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1-800-272-3900.
Paint the Town Purple in Ridgefield will continue with an “awareness table” at the gazebo in Ballard Park for the free CHIRP concert in the park Tuesday, Aug. 18, featuring the New Orleans-based band, The Revelers. The music starts at 7.
Townspeople and folks who work in Ridgefield are being asked to show support by wearing purple this week.
Bonnie Leavy-Mello of the Laurel Ridge Health Care Center, who helped organize the event, told the Paint the Town volunteers that many of the purple ribbons they were putting up had been made by Alzheimer’s patients at Laurel Ridge and Ridgefield Crossings.
“I just thought it was really special that some of the people living with the disease are making these bows,” she said.
“Some of these bows are not perfect, and we have a picture-perfect town. But it’s really not about that. It’s about the disease and raising awareness and putting awareness out there for the community.”
In her talk to the volunteers who were about to go out putting up ribbons on Monday, Lexi Rodriguez of the Alzheimer’s Association echoed the thought.
“There’s no right or wrong way to this,” Rodriguez told the volunteers. “So, if you’re a perfectionist, leave that behind. The idea is just to be purple and pretty.”
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