A cure for Alzheimer’s has yet to be found — but the Iola Alzheimer’s Support Group will be walking until one is found.
The group will be holding its fifth annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s Oct. 13.
The event will begin with registration at 9 a.m. at the courthouse on the square. At 9:30 a.m. will be a live auction where quilts, antlers, lamps and a meat bundle will be up for bids, according to May LaCrone founder of the Iola Alzheimer’s Support Group.
At 10 a.m. will be an inspirational Promise Garden Motion ceremony in the garden prior to the race. The two-mile walk will begin after the ceremony.
The walker festival will begin at 11 a.m. where music will be played and lunch will be served for $4 donation per plate.
THE WALK is being dedicated to Bill and Ann Michael, she said.
They both have since passed away, but the story they left behind is one that lives on.
Ann developed Alzheimer’s and Bill took care of her day-in and day-out. “She was his priority,” LaCrone said.
When Bill could no longer take care of Ann he would visit her in the nursing home almost every day of her eight-plus years there.
He only missed 10 days during her stay due to illness or their grandchild’s wedding, LaCrone said.
“He was just a special person,” LaCrone said. “He was tall so he would help the people in the nursing home reach things they would usually have to go get a ladder for.”
Bill would insist on going to the nursing home first thing in t he morning, at 10 a.m. and stay until 4 p.m.
Eventually his children had to ask him to go from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and he obliged.
“There was never a more devoted man than Bill,” LaCrone said.
Bill supported not only Ann but the Alzheimer’s Support Group as well as Iola’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s.
LACRONE began the Alzheimer’s Support Group 13 years ago. She has been doing the walk for eight.
Each month she and a group of supporters would go to Pittsburg for support group meetings. Each year they would take the same trip for a walk.
“On the way home I told our group ‘you know, if we come up here why don’t we do it in Iola’,” LaCrone said.
INDIVIDUALS and teams can participate in the race. All walkers raising $50 or more will qualify to receive an event T-shirt.
Participants can register online at www.alzwalkiola.org or contact Mary LaCrone at (620) 365-5619.
