200 attend Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina

Photos courtesy of Mollie Radzinski: Participants funnel through the finish line at the end of Saturday’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina’s State Street Park.

MEDINA – Medina’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s on Saturday was the first of six to take place in Western New York, according to walk manager Lynn Hughes of Hamburg.

While it doesn’t compare with the 3,500 expected in Buffalo, the 200 on Saturday was a great number for a small village, Hughes said.

The total raised so far is listed at $17,885, according to the online tally by the Alzheimer’s Association of WNY.

The race garners amazing support from the local community and beyond, including 40 volunteers, many of whom return year after year. An example is Carolyn Wagner, Amanda Pollard and especially Mary Lou Tuohey and her family.

Walkers start out from State Street Park  for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Saturday.

Tuohey lost both her parents to Alzheimer’s and supports their fundraisers wholeheartedly, including sponsoring a basket raffle to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association of WNY. In previous years, the raffle has been limited to the store windows of her business, Case-Nic Cookies on Main Street, but this year the Association allowed her to bring the raffle to the walk.

In addition to $1,435 in tickets sold at the store, another $745 was raised at the walk. Also, an annual tradition is selling paper links, which Tuohey’s daughter Nicole sticks together in a chain with a goal to stretch it down Main Street. This year she sold 1,477 at $1 each.

Volunteer Carolyn Wagner said Saturday’s turnout was good.

“We have a great core group of people who support this every year,” she said. “Alzheimer’s is a terrible disease, and most of us have had a connection with people affected by it.”

She said there are new people every year, but also many who return to participate every year – as walkers and volunteers.

Photos by Ginny Kropf: Volunteers at the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina gather around a table full of flowers, each color designating a different involvement with the disease. From left are Carolyn Wagner, walk manager Lynn Hughes of Hamburg, Amanda Pollard and Cathy Hooker.

Kaitlyn Less, director of Development for Alzheimer’s Association of WNY, said she was excited to kick off the season in Medina.

“This is a wonderful local community, and I’m delighted to see how they come out to fight Alzheimer’s,” she said. “I am also happy to have the raffle here this year.”

She commended Tim Hortons in Medina and Albion for donating coffee, hot chocolate and Timbits, and said the walk covered a great route, which encompassed the canal and extended close to two miles.

The event included a Kids’ Zone, entertainment by DJ Spyder of Albion and Randy Bushover in his 11th year as emcee.

“My maternal grandmother died as the result of Alzheimer’s,” Bushover said.

The walk was hailed as a celebration of all the fundraising and hard work done by participants.

“It is also a celebration of the strides we’ve made in research,” Less said.

Randy Bushover of Medina, emcee for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Medina,  stands with Michael Hooker, 12, and his mother Kim of Akron. They hold white flowers, which they carried in the walk, signifying anticipation of the day there will be a survivor of Alzheimer’s Disease.

One tent housed buckets full of different colored artificial flowers. Walk participants chose a flower which signified how Alzheimer’s has affected them. Orange means they support the cause; yellow is for someone caring for a person with Alzheimer’s; purple is for those who’ve lost someone to the disease; blue is for anyone living with the disease; and white represents a world without Alzheimer’s – it will herald the day a person who suffered from Alzheimer’s survives.

“Usually a kid carries the white flower, because kids are our future,” Less said.

This year, Michael Hooker, 12, of Akron carried a white flower and walked with his mother Kim, a former Medina resident.

“My father-in-law died of Alzheimer’s and we’re here to support the cause,” Kim said.

Walk participants could carry the flowers on the walk and “plant” them afterwards in the Promise Garden near the canal or take them home.