More than 70 people stepped up for the Step Out and Care fundraising walk around Lake Estes this past Sunday, raising more than $8,100 to support the Estes Dementia Day Center.
The event was the first major fundraiser for the organization, which is working to bring a day care program for people with dementia to the Estes Valley. Organizers have set a target of $500,000 to create a professionally staffed and volunteer-trained day center, which will provide programming for individuals affected by dementia and support for their caregivers. They hope to open the facility in early 2026.
September is National Alzheimer’s Month, and Sunday, Sept. 21, is World Alzheimer’s Day, a global effort to raise awareness and challenge the stigma around Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
While Alzheimer’s may be the most well-known kind of dementia, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of dementia cases, there are several kinds of dementia, including Vascular, Lewy body, Frontotemporal, and mixed. Some disease processes, such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, Down’s syndrome, and Korsakoff syndrome, can cause dementia.
Dementia is an umbrella term for loss of memory, language, problem-solving, and other thinking abilities that are severe enough to interfere with daily life. It is estimated that 7 million people are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in the US. This figure is expected to increase as the Baby Boomer population – some 73 million people who are 61 to 79 years old and were born between 1946 and 1964 – continues to age.
It is also estimated that 42 percent of Americans over age 55 will develop dementia, and the number of people who will develop dementia each year in the US is projected to soar to approximately 1 million by 2060.
Click here for more information about the Estes Dementia Day Center.
$8100 isn’t nothing, but with all the obvious wealth that exists in Estes Park, is that really the best they could do? If so, our economy is in much bigger trouble than we’re being told. Estes has a demographic that is largely retired people. dementia is a reality there; surely we can show more interest than that.