Play Ball and End Alz!

June is Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month! (This basically means I have been wearing some form of purple every day so far this month.) It is so important to spread awareness about Alzheimer's Disease - it's the 6th leading cause of death in the US, but it has no treatment and no cure, and it doesn't have nearly the research funding that cancer and heart disease, as well as other leading causes of death, have. Right now, someone in the US develops Alzheimer's every 67 seconds - if we do nothing, it will be every 33 seconds by 2050 (terrifying).

The Alzheimer's Association of Greater Indiana has been sponsoring events all month for ABAM. There are so many ways to participate and raise awareness! There are Dine-to-Donates set up across the state (visit the Noblesville Applebee's on June 24 to support Team Angel! Contact me for the flyer), as well as other events like CruZionsville and the Custom Car Revival in Indianapolis. You can also support your favorite brunette (hey there!) in the 4th Annual Blondes vs. Brunettes game on June 28 at Eli Lilly's Colonel Field. A $20 donation gets you entrance to the game, a free beer at the game, and entrance to the after-game celebration at the downtown Indy Kilroy's. It's going to be an awesome game (and the Brunettes are totally going to kick ass). We're well on our way to raising over $30,000 for Alzheimer's Awareness and Research!

Last night, the Alzheimer's Association sponsored an Alzheimer's Awareness Night at Victory Field for the Indianapolis Indians game versus the Durham Bulls. It was a gorgeous night for a ball game, and the Association had a table set up right at the entrance to Victory Field. They also had a prize wheel, where you could win Walk tattoos and stickers, as well as Walk t-shirts from last year.

Several of my fellow ESA Eta Pi members came to the Indians game! It acted as our June social and a philanthropy event - we were decked out in purple and had great seats on the third base-line. It was awesome to see people that were out in purple - either wearing Walk t-shirts, or Alzheimer's Association gear, or a purple hat or sticker - it showed that there are people in and around Indy that care about ending this disease.

Check out those awesome Eta Pi members!

I know I write a lot about Alzheimer's Disease, and I know I post a lot about it, but it is truly the most heartbreaking and gut-wrenching disease I have ever encountered. I know a lot of facts and figures, but in reality, those facts and figures really don't mean much when your Grandpa can't figure out that you're his granddaughter, or your Granny can't remember the last time you visited her even though it was just a couple days before, or when your loved one tells you to go away and that they never want to see you anymore. Alzheimer's doesn't just rob memories - it changes personalities, too. My Grandpa was always social and never knew a stranger - Alzheimer's turned him in to a quiet, solemn man. My Granny was a fiercely independent and silly woman - Alzheimer's took her independence and stole her silliness. Sometimes, the worst part is that the body carries on just like normal, unaware that the mind is slowly fading away. There's a very real possibility for a person to stay in the final stages for years. 

The mission of ABAM is a simple one: go purple and help us end Alzheimer's Disease. Join or form a Walk team, support BvB, or just wear purple and learn the 10 signs of Alzheimer's. Your brain and your memories matter, and are worth saving. Join the fight today. 

ESA Eta Pi Relays for Life

I'll be honest here: I had no idea what I was getting into when I offered to take over my ESA chapter's Relay for Life team. I had heard of Relay (it's a big deal on Purdue's campus), but I had never been to a Relay. I've seen pictures of the luminarias, and knew some people who did it when I was at Purdue, but I was kind of going in blind this weekend.

Eta Pi ladies at Relay for Life!

Relay for Life is an event put on by the American Cancer Society and takes place across the United States (there are four Relays in Hamilton County alone - Fishers, Noblesville, Carmel, and Westfield). Teams set up, usually at a middle school or high school track (the Fishers event was at Fishers Junior High School), and they are there for 24 hours - from 9 am the first day to 9 am on the second. Teams set up on-site fundraising to keep raising their team total, and one person from each team is supposed to walk around the track, so there are always a handful of people walking.

Our campsite! 

Tammy and Sue take a lap!

Our onsite fundraisers included selling popsicles - which were definitely frozen when I left my apartment that morning and melted in our cooler, so really we were selling cold, flavored sugar water - and a pie war. Our chapter name is Eta Pi, so we played off that name to come up with our Pie War. Relayers could donate $1-$5 to pie someone on their team. Their team member, however, could donate just $1 more to not be pied AND to pie the original person, so no matter what, somebody was getting pied. 

Jessie and Awal demonstrate excellent pie technique

The Pie War was a HUGE hit with the kids at Relay! Once we got our first non-Eta Pi member pied, they all kept coming back for more and to pie everyone they knew. We even had a couple kids who just wanted to keep being pied! We ended up raising $111 on-site with the pie war, and our total donation to the American Cancer Society was $271! 

These guys LOVED getting pied. They were our biggest donors!

While the Pie War was an awesome, fun event, the luminaria ceremony reminded us of why we were relaying in the first place. I write a lot about my Grandpa and my Granny and their battle with Alzheimer's, but seven years ago, I lost my Grandma to cancer. I loved spending time with my Grandma - she encouraged my writing from the beginning, and read everything I wrote, no matter how ridiculous it was (and I'm sure there were some ridiculous short stories in my middle school writing era!). She also taught me how to play Scrabble, and played with me every time I came over to their house. She was pretty much unbeatable, and I managed to do it once, but I'm pretty sure she let me win. I was devastated when she passed away, and I made my luminaria for her. 

Grandma Joan Elsten, December 7, 1932 - March 1, 2007

The Luminaria Ceremony was so very powerful. Luminarias lined the track. Even though the Fishers Relay is smaller than Noblesville, Carmel, and Westfield, and probably only had about 50 people there, there were easily double the amount of luminarias than there were Relayers. The Luminaria ceremony took place at 9:30 pm, when it was totally dark. Each luminaria held a lit candle, and everyone gathered in the middle of the track. A representative from each team read the names of the luminarias from their team, and then everyone took one silent lap around the track, surrounded by the flickering luminarias. In the bleachers, luminarias were used to spell out HOPE. 

 It's blurry, but you can make out "HOPE" in the bleachers

Eta Pi ladies with our luminarias

It was a long day, and I'm sunburnt, sore, and feel like I could probably sleep for a few more days to finally feel rested again, but I had a great first Relay experience! I'm looking forward to next year's Relay, and am excited to take Eta Pi's fundraising to the next level. Something that stuck with me was, during the Opening Ceremonies, one of the Relayers, who was also a cancer survivor, stated that "we Relay for many reasons, but the one thing we have in common is that we all Relay for hope, and we will never give up." I am so very proud of Eta Pi and what we accomplished this weekend, and it is so very true - we Relay for hope, and we don't plan on giving up.