I had a lot of fun with last year’s fat book and charm bracelet swaps, even though they didn’t raise as much as I hoped they would for Alzheimer’s research. So, this year, I was thinking to do something a bit different. I want to create a zine (a type of magazine) called “A Portrait of Alzheimer’s” and am looking for people to make art that fits this theme to include in the zine. Since you can just take a good, high resolution photo for me instead of sending in original art, it should be less costly for everyone to do. Of course, all net proceeds from zine sales will be donated to the Alzheimer’s Foundation at Alz.org.
Ideas for art to include in the zine are:
Poetry
Photos (please include a signed model release for any photos that include a person in them or I won’t be able to use them in the zine.)
Rubber stamped art (of course!)
Painted, sketched, or mixed media portraits
Sculpture
Art quilts
I also would love to have a section specifically for the art of Alzheimer’s victims, so if you are a caregiver for an Alzheimer’s patient, encourage him or her to make a piece. (Even if you don’t send anything in, art is such great therapy for Alzheimer’s patients, caregivers and everyone else on earth, so please give it a try.)
Please comment here if you have questions or have a piece you want to submit. The deadline for submissions to the zine is October 15th, 2008, so you have plenty of time to think about creating a piece.
Electric scooters and wheelchairs are a wonderful help for Alzheimer’s patients in the middle stages of the disease. However, there comes a time when they can no longer sit up and the scooter stops being used. William’s scooter has been tucked away in a corner for 8 months as we debated what to do with it. Today, we decided to try to see if we could find someone who could use it who didn’t have insurance to cover a new one of their own.
So, for the last hour or so, I’ve been crying my eyes out reading the emails from needy people in my dinky local area who don’t have insurance and don’t have the funds to buy one for family members with missing limbs and crippling conditions. I wish I had more than one to give.
If you have an electric scooter or wheelchair in good condition that is gathering dust because you think no one will want it, will you consider finding it a new home? You’d be amazed at the response on your local Freecycle. (Freecycle is through Yahoo groups and is broken up into local regions to make it easy to give away and get useful things that would have ended up being unused or thrown away.)
I just found out about the Caregivers Marketplace. Sign up is free and then they give you money back for some of the things you buy to care for Alzheimer’s patients, diabetes patients, etc. The only catch is that they need your original receipt, so you can’t do a Walgreens rebate and get the rebate from Caregivers Marketplace, too.
You have to purchase 5 products before you send in your receipts and their cash back form. The qualifying products aren’t all specialized things like Depends, either. I saw Cottenelle Fresh Wipes and some baby diapers on the list.
I’m thinking that it would be nice to save up the money back for a special treat for the caregiver - a manicure, an espresso, a day at the movies, or what have you.
I was talking to someone who is caring for his wife, who has Alzheimer’s, with very little support the other day. He said, “It’s like being in prison.” He was out for a few short moments because he found a family member willing to watch her while he ran up the street to do errands. It turned out one of the things he needs was 20 minutes away and he couldn’t leave the person giving him a break for the hour it would take to get the item.
Caring for a person with Alzheimer’s is very stressful and we need to remember to take care of ourselves. This man was burned out and exhausted and needed more than a few minutes’ break, but he relies on friends and family for help and they aren’t really available. There must be a solution for people who don’t have the money to pay for qualified help. I’ve mentioned before that finding someone to barter care with is one solution. They watch the person with Alzheimer’s for a few hours and you clean their gutters and run to the store. However, that isn’t really enough of a break. There’s still no down time, no way to really relax.
If you have a great solution, I’d love to hear it.
Well, the fat book has been auctioned off and it didn’t raise much money, but it was still a success. First, I added a bit of my own money to the donation to make it more substantial. Then, a few other people heard about the fundraiser and it encouraged them to make donations. Finally, the people who participated in the fat book swap really got a lot out of it and I gave a copy to the family member who made me think of the whole thing to start with. He appreciated it so much that it was worth it just for that.
My doctor told me when I was a child that drinking soda would make me grow up to be a shaky old lady, so I cut back to one can a week. Now, I’m glad I did. A new study by the University of Alabama at Birmingham shows a link between drinking sugary things and Alzheimer’s.
In addition, the sugar-fed mice also had worse learning ability and memory retention and their brains gained more than twice as much of amyloid plague deposits, which are believed to cause Alzheimer’s in humans.
The amount of sugar the mice used is equivalent to about 5 cans of soda per day for humans.
If you enjoy mixed media art and would like to support Alzheimer’s research, please bid on the lovely Cherished Memories Fat Book created by artists who were touched in some way by Alzheimer’s disease. It is up on eBay right now. 100% of the proceeds go directly to Alzheimer’s research.
The Alzheimer’s Association sent me a notice about a new Hallmark movie that will be airing Sunday. Sounds like something anyone who deals with Alzheimer’s would like to watch:
On Sunday, Dec. 2, Hallmark Hall of Fame’s “Pictures of Hollis Woods,” featuring an Alzheimer storyline and starring Academy Award winner Sissy Spacek, airs on CBS. The Alzheimer’s Association worked closely with Hallmark to ensure Spacek’s depiction of someone living with Alzheimer’s was portrayed in an accurate manner. Hallmark will include a brief announcement at the end of the movie directing people to the Association for more information about the disease. Check your local listings for air times and tune in.
The Guardian talks about a study that shows that eating omega-3 oils can reduce the chance of getting Alzheimer’s by 60%. I do believe I’m going to run out and plant a walnut tree! (We had one for 15 years at the house I grew up in and those black walnuts are tough to crack without a hideous mess, but they are good to eat and the shells make a great black dye.)
Eating a diet rich in omega-3 oils such as rapeseed, flaxseed and walnut oil could reduce the risk of suffering Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia by 60%, according to a study of more than 8,000 people.
The study, published in the Journal of Neurology, also found that eating fruit and vegetables daily and fish at least once a week seems to protect against cognitive decline.
Fox reported that a vaccine has been developed that can slow or prevent Alzheimer’s disease. This is exciting news, especially since human testing of the vaccine may start in just a few years:
Scientists at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City have developed a vaccine they hope can slow down or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
Researcher Jordan Tang says the results so far are “extremely exciting” and show more testing is needed.
The experimental vaccine is designed to stimulate the body’s own immune system to help it fight dementia in the brain.
Researchers say human testing could begin in three to four years.
