More than 500 joined the walk
CARMEL – Light drizzle and overcast skies Sunday failed to dampen the spirits of more than 500 men, women and children who participated in Putnam County’s annual Memory Walk that raised funds for Alzheimer’s research.
A new venue this year packed the upper Putnam Veteran’s Memorial Park for the two mile walk. Over the years the gathering has grown as the incidence of the memory-robbing illness has affected more and more Putnam families.
Retiring Office of Senior Resources Director Pat Sheehy recalled the early walks they began with just a couple of dozen, “but now the walk has grown tremendously.”
David Sobel, president of the Alzheimer’s Association of the Hudson Valley, called the disease a “growing epidemic that is now the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S.”
Sobel estimated that someone in America develops Alzheimer’s every 70 seconds and by 2050, the incidence will increase to every 35 seconds. “Currently there are more than 5 million people in the United States with Alzheimer’s – a number that will increase to 16 million in the next three decades if we don’t find a way to treat this disease.”
Sobel said in the area served by his organization, 40,000 men and women are affected by Alzheimer’s with more than half of those residing in Putnam and Westchester. The Hudson Valley chapter also encompasses Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties.
