Despite being a newly formed club, Alzheimer’s Club strives to raise awareness about the disease in the short amount of time given since the club has formed.
Alzheimer’s is a certain kind of dementia that deals with memory loss. It typically occurs in people who are typically 60 years or older, but it could also occur in earlier. For every 65 seconds, someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, which makes it the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S.
Vienna Huang, a sophomore and the club president, plans to organize concerts to draw attention to the disease and to hold discussions with people who are familiar with Alzheimer’s.
“Through our club, we hope to reach out to a wider audience and convey the importance of spreading awareness to Alzheimer’s in our community,” Huang said.
Despite having a set plan and goal, the new club still endured many hardships.
“I think the main struggle of getting the club started was putting it out there and figuring out what we could do as a club to make an impact on Alzheimer’s,” said Cindy Chen, a junior and the vice president of the club. “We plan to get more people to join this club by advertising fun things we will do and [by] reaching out to others in school.”
Confidence is a quality that the members of the Alzheimer’s Club possess. As a group, they believe that all it takes is a little publicity for more people to be interested in helping and joining the club. Michal Nozik, the club administrator, believes that as more people are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, more people would need to support those who are diagnosed and their families.
“I am confident that the students can raise awareness for this disease. We have many students on campus who are interested in volunteering and helping out, and when people become more aware of a problem, some [will be] interested in getting involved and helping,” Nozik said.
Club meetings provide an opportunity for club members to gain more insight into Alzheimer’s. Students like Lauren Chong, a sophomore, said that they gained an interest in this disease by attending club meetings.
“After the first meeting, I realized I really liked it. It felt good to give back to our community, and the club has helped me understand what Alzheimer’s is so much better,” Chong said.
Huang has planned many activities to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s, one of which is happening in December.
“Our next upcoming event is a concert on Dec. 21 at the Silverado Belmont Hills Memory Care Center,” Huang said. “Over the summer, I saw firsthand how those with Alzheimer’s reacted when listening to music; some jump up and start dancing, others want to join in on the music-making. It truly made me so happy to see how music touched these people.”
