KENT – A chilly Sunday morning greeted more than 400 walkers in Kent who participated in an annual Putnam tradition – the Memory Walk to end Alzheimer’s disease by raising funds for Alzheimer’s research.
The upper section of Putnam Veteran’s Memorial Park, like other sites across the region, drew crowds of all ages, along with several pets, for the two-mile walk. The event has grown over the years as memory-robbing illness has affected more families.
Dave Sobel, director of the Hudson Valley Alzheimer’s Association, described Alzheimer’s as a “growing epidemic that is now the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. The National Alzheimer’s Association has 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, 400,000 alone in New York State – a number that will increase to 16 million in the next three decades if a way is not found to treat the disease.”
More than 10 percent of Putnam’s nearly 100,000 residents experience some form of memory loss.
Alzheimer’s affects 40,000 people in the Hudson Valley chapter’s service area, more than half of whom live in Putnam and Westchester counties. The chapter also serves Rockland, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Sullivan counties.
Funds from the Putnam walk support research to find a cure. Officials said about $500 million had been raised nationwide since 1982.
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