{"id":13798,"date":"2015-04-02T00:46:03","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T00:46:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/a-march-of-purple-elephants-save-the-memories-alliance-fundraiser\/"},"modified":"2015-04-02T00:46:03","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T00:46:03","slug":"a-march-of-purple-elephants-save-the-memories-alliance-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/a-march-of-purple-elephants-save-the-memories-alliance-fundraiser\/","title":{"rendered":"A March of Purple Elephants: Save the Memories Alliance Fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By Nick Muscavage\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n

theaspnews@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

April 1, 2015<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/p>\n

Photo by Nick Muscavage. Leger and other participants at the walk travel down the Purple Path while showing their support to the fight against Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Matt Leger could be seen at the front of the 250 person pack leading the crowd as they marched parts of the three and a half mile Purple Path which loops the outskirts of the University at Albany campus. The walk took place Sunday, March 29 to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer\u2019s, a debilitating condition that affects memory and other important mental functions in the brain. It is a disease that Leger is all too familiar with.<\/p>\n

A sophomore at UAlbany, Leger explained that he started the club Save the Memories Alliance due to his own family\u2019s history with the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlzheimer\u2019s runs on both sides of my family. My Pepere (grandfather) on my father\u2019s side suffers from it, my mom\u2019s grandmother died from it and it skips a generation so my mom is next in line so I just wanted to raise funds,\u201d Leger said.<\/p>\n

Leger is the founder of Save the Memories Alliance, which he started when he was a student at Fitchburg High School in Fitchburg, Mass. He decided to bring the club to college when he came to UAlbany, and has been serving as its\u00a0president since its initiation at the college in spring 2014.<\/p>\n

Since the club\u2019s inception, Leger has estimated that it has successfully raised $ 8,000, including the approximated funds raised from Sunday\u2019s march, through sales of T-shirts and bracelets as well as donations. The T-shirts had a purple elephant printed on the chest, the symbol for Save the Memories Alliance due to the legend that elephants\u2019 have a perfect memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been very proud of him since day one, just getting everybody motivated and involved. He\u2019s always had a passion of helping people,\u201d said Sandy Leger, Matt Leger\u2019s mother. Both of Leger\u2019s parents were present at the walk.<\/p>\n

The funds from Sunday\u2019s walk will be split evenly, explained Leger, with one half going towards Alzheimer\u2019s Foundation of America for caretaking and research. Leger said that he\u2019d rather see the money go more towards caretaking since, \u201ccaretaking is half the battle. Also because half the time money for research gets dumped out of the window because of failed drugs.\u201d The other half of the raised funds will go towards a foundation for JP Honsinger, a child with early onset Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n

JP Honsinger is the 11-year-old who was signed to UAlbany\u2019s men basketball team this year, traveling and attending most of the games with the team. He was diagnosed with Niemann-Pick disease Type C, or NPC, in Sept. 2013. NPC is a metabolic disorder and is also known as childhood Alzheimer\u2019s. It is extremely rare and only 500 people are diagnosed with the condition, according to Leger, 300 of which live in America.<\/p>\n

The website itulycare.com explained that symptoms of NPC typically include deterioration of memory and balance, lung and liver failure, and development of seizures. It went on to say that diagnosed children rarely live on into adulthood. It advertised a fundraising dinner event that is set to take place on May 1, 2015 for Honsinger.<\/p>\n

During the walk, members of the crowd held signs\u00a0emblazoned with facts about the disease: five million Americans are living with Alzheimer\u2019s, Alzheimer\u2019s kills more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, every 60 seconds someone in the United States develops the disease, and two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer\u2019s are women.<\/p>\n

Leger expressed concern over the recent treatment of Alzheimer\u2019s in the medical field, especially those addressed in the recently released report by the Alzheimer\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe report found just 45 percent of Medicare patients who\u2019d been diagnosed with Alzheimer\u2019s said they were informed of the diagnosis by their doctor. By contrast, more than 90 percent of Medicare patients with cancer said they were told by their doctor,\u201d said Jon Hamilton in an NPR segment.<\/p>\n

It continued, \u201cTo make sure that Alzheimer\u2019s patients hadn\u2019t simply forgotten what a doctor said, the group also looked at Medicare survey responses from family members and other caregivers. The result wasn\u2019t much better: Just 53 percent said a doctor told them of the patient\u2019s diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leger said, \u201cIt\u2019s pretty messed up. There seems to be a lot of awareness, not education. It\u2019s events like this that can change that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\nThe Albany Student Press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nick Muscavage\u00a0 Staff Writer theaspnews@gmail.com April 1, 2015 Photo by Nick Muscavage. Leger and other participants at the walk travel down the Purple Path while showing their support to the fight against Alzheimer\u2019s. Matt Leger could be seen at the front of the 250 person pack leading the crowd as they marched parts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[983],"tags":[943,4094,4096,4093,4095,1298,970],"class_list":["post-13798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-albany-student-press","tag-alliance","tag-elephants","tag-fundraiser","tag-march","tag-memories","tag-purple","tag-save"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.techiteens.com\/review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}