MANSFIELD, Ohio – For one Bucyrus family, the local edition of the 2015 Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Sunday afternoon at The Ohio State University at Mansfield and North Central State College campus represented more than a gathering of supporters.
It gave them an opportunity to share how they are fighting back against the memory-stealing disease.
During the event’s opening ceremony, Dawn and Casey Pollock gave their testimony.
“My mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at 52,” said Dawn Pollock, whose mother, Debbie Skaggs, found out she had the disease about 12 years ago.
After spending a few years tending to her mother while also raising her children, Dawn Pollock decided she wanted to do something, along with her husband, to help others experiencing the same difficulties brought on by the disease.
“We started little by little doing things to raise money,” she said. “We did a steak fry back in 2012 and raised about $1,000, and that was our first time participating in the walk.”
From there, the Pollocks began organizing other events, including an annual golf outing, to support the cause.
Out of their efforts came Debbie’s Footsteps, an organization named after Skaggs’ first experience in a nursing home.
“The nurses would tell us how she would follow them all night long,” Casey Pollock said of his mother-in-law. “She would go with them to give out meds, and she would walk and pace all night long.
“And as we were trying to come up with our first team name, someone said, ‘imagine following in your mom’s footsteps for a day.’”
The idea made sense, he said, and in just three years, Debbie’s Footsteps has raised about $10,000 to fight the disease, which Casey Pollock said affects more people than most realize.
“When we started this initial drive for the first outing, when we mentioned what we were doing, the people would say, ‘my grandmother, my aunt, my mom, has been affected by this,’” he said. “They had it, and that light bulb went off that people just don’t talk about it.”
The organization’s charitable golf outing is called A Round to Remember and is scheduled again for July 23, 2016, at The Golf Club of Bucyrus.
Originally called In Debbie’s Footsteps, the Pollocks’ group is currently working toward becoming a registered 501(c)3 organization and always is looking for sponsors.
“I don’t think that people realize the magnitude of Alzheimer’s,” Dawn Pollock said.
According to Cindy Jakubick, walk coordinator and development and communications coordinator of the Alzheimer’s Association office in Ontario, there were 175 walkers preregistered for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, while many more signed up on the day.
The goal was to raise more than $40,000.
“A lot of people have been out and about talking to their friends, and some of our teams had their own individual fundraisers,” Jakubick said.
Funds from the event will go toward local care and services, support, and research for the Alzheimer’s Association, which is a nonprofit organization that hosts the annual walk.
Jakubick said there were an expected 300 in attendance for the day’s festivities.
Check-in for the walk started at noon, while the opening ceremony started a little after 1:30 p.m. The walk itself stepped off at 2 p.m.
“It’s not one of those walk-a-thons where every mile you walk you have to donate a certain amount,” Jakubick said. “There are no winners or losers – everyone just comes together for one purpose, and that’s to raise money for our families and patients.”
There was no fee to participate, but registration was required.
In addition to trekking the nearly 2-mile course around the Mansfield campus, those in attendance also received a Promise Garden flower for participating in the event.
There were four different artificial pinwheel flowers to choose from – each color representing the walkers’ connections to the disease.
“Everybody has a reason to be here,” Jakubick said. “They’re not here just because they were born on Sunday – they’ve got a reason, something has touched their heart, and something has made them want to go out of their way to help the Alzheimer’s Association.”
The flowers, she said, gives participants a way to publicly display their support.
“So if you see someone with the flower that represents caregiver or family member, you know if you have the same flower you have something in common with them,” she said.
Blue flowers were for those currently living with Alzheimer’s or dementia, while purple flowers were for those who have a lost a loved one to the disease. Those who currently care for or support someone with Alzheimer’s were given a yellow flower, and those who were there to support the cause received orange flowers.
The local office of the Alzheimer’s Association is part of the organization’s Northwest Ohio Chapter, which is headquartered in Toledo.
That chapter hosts 10 walks in Ohio each year, starting at the end of August and running through mid-October.
For information on the Alzheimer’s Association or Debbie’s Footsteps, visit their websites at alz.org/nwohio or debbiesfootsteps.org.
