Walkers take to the street to fight Alzheimer's

MOSES LAKE - His daughters and his niece agreed that Jack Wood was just a big kid at heart, with a great sense of humor. He kept that sense of humor even when Alzheimer's attacked him, said his daughter Teri Swindell. That was good, because Alzheimer's took a lot from him, and from his family.

Jack Wood passed away in mid-August. "We lost our dad four weeks ago, but it's like we lost him long before that," his daughter, Robin Cusato-Wood, said. "He was there, but he wasn't. He was Dad, but he wasn't," she said.

So Cusato-Wood, of Moses Lake, and Swindell, of East Wenatchee, were ready to go walking to raise money for Alzheimer's research and treatment Saturday morning. Their cousin, Donna Kelley, traveled from her home in Billerica, Mass., in part to go walking with them. They were among the about 200 people who took part in the first Walk to End Alzheimer's in Moses Lake.

The event raised about $18,000 for Alzheimer's research and treatment, Joel Loiacono, executive director for the Inland Northwest Alzheimer's Association, said. "That is great for a first year," Loiacono said.

John Morris said his mother-in-law and his wife Linda both were victims of Alzheimer's. He recalled when his mother-in-law was diagnosed in the 1990s, his father-in-law was relieved it wasn't cancer. But as the disease progressed his father-in-law said cancer might have been easier, he said.

Morris formed a team called Linda's Angels, in honor of his wife and also in honor of the people he met while Linda was ill. Some people backed away after diagnosis and during her illness, he said. But for every person who does that, "you'll meet an angel along the way," he said.

The team from Aging and Adult care were walking in support of treatment and cure, for a team member's grandmother and another's mother and mother-in-law. The Genesis Healthcare crew, and the team from Monroe House, care for dementia patients, and they've seen the toll it takes, they said, on the person battling the disease, on their families, on the caregivers. "We just wanted to join the walk for the cause," Samantha Bradley, of Moses Lake, said.

The Moses Lake High School cheer squad greeted every walker with a cheer as they arrived, and part of the squad led the way down Yonezawa Boulevard. Participants carried plastic flowers, purple for people who had lost a friend or family member to Alzheimer's, yellow for families currently fighting the disease, blue for Alzheimer's sufferers and orange for people in support.

The money raised will be used throughout the Inland Northwest, Loiacono said. It pays for a number of services for Alzheimer's patients and their families, he said, including support groups, providing information about the disease, answering questions and steering people to resources. It pays for safety devices for dementia patients in case they wander away, Loiacono said.

About 30 percent of the money raised goes to research into treatment and cure, he said. The Alzheimer's Association is the largest source of private funds for Alzheimer's research, he said.