Participants in Yellowknife’s IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s laced up their shoes to achieve their goal of raising funds and awareness Saturday.
More than 50 people walked and wheeled from the Baker Centre to the legislative assembly and back under warm, sunny skies and raised more than $10,000 from the Yellowknife area alone, said Shawna Gillis, navigator at the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories, Yellowknife chapter.
“This is their main walk of the year,” Gillis said of the sponsored fundraising effort that will benefit programs designed to assist those with Alzheimer’s and dementia-related illnesses.
“It is also a memory walk for people,” she said of the signage participants could wear with the names of their loved ones who died or who have the disease.
Gillis said it's important to have such an event to create awareness about not only Alzheimer’s disease, but about the programs available to provide support.
“It is for people to connect with other people who may not know we have supports in the territories and nationally,” she said.
Across Canada, more than 650,000 people have dementia and that number is increasing rapidly, according to Alzheimer Society research. By 2030, it is expected that nearly one million people will live with the disease.