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Yesterday was one of the biggest days of the year at the Chapter. Our annual Facts & Figures report garners media attention from throughout the 14 counties and is a catalyst in motivating people for our cause. Here’s a rundown of newspaper articles and television reports from yesterday:

• WSYR-TV (Syracuse), which focused on Clay caregiver Tami Schanbacher.
• Syracuse.com/Post-Standard (Syracuse), which featured the report in its news and health sections
• The Observer-Dispatch (Utica), which had a lengthy article feature an interview with Saquoit caregiver Patrick Inserra.
• WKTV-TV (Utica), which featured Janice Durant, a caregiver from Oneida Castle. WKTV is a member of the Alzheimer’s Early Detetction Alliance and reporter/anchor Megan Koskovich is a member of our event planning committees.
• WWNY-TV (Watertown), which featured Limerick caregiver Yvonne Thompson and her husband Cecil. WWNY is also an AEDA member and news anchors Brian Ashley and Anne Richter-Ashley are longtime friends of the Chapter.
• News10Now (CNY), which reported the statistics.
• WAER-FM (Syracuse) conducted an interview with Tully caregiver and Chapter volunteer Kris Terrillion.
• The Ithaca Journal and The Press Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton) ran articles summarizing the statistics and the disease impact on the Southern Tier community.

WRVO-FM also taped a lengthy feature with Chapter CEO Catherine James and a 54-year-old Syracuse woman living with Alzheimer’s that will run this week.

We also put the call out to GO PURPLE! on March 9 and are pleased to see as many people as we did wearing purple in support of the cause, as our friends at WKTV and WWNY did. We are also pleased to report that more than 75 people became our friends on Facebook yesterday, a trend we are looking to continue over the coming weeks. If you are on Facebook and haven’t done so already, become a fan of our page. Once you become our friend, make sure to invite your Facebook friends to become part of the cause.

Just because walk is over does not mean the money stops coming in. Between matching gifts, mail-in donations and visitors to our website, we continue to raise funds for each and every walk.

Through Noon on Saturday, here is where we stand for each walk:

• Mohawk Valley: $42,940
• St. Lawrence: $33,117
• Jeff-Lewis: $54,512
• Southern Tier: $69,82
• Greater Syracuse: $117,330

All said and done, the Central New York Chapter had its most successful Memory Walk season ever — $317,720.

We will keep updating you over the next couple of weeks on how we stand. Remember, donations dated through October 31 will count towards this year’s walks!

On behalf of the Central New York Chapter staff, we thank each and every one of you for time and support.

Thanks to everyone who visited us at Tim Hortons this morning. Visitors to stores in East Syracuse, North Syracuse and Syracuse were greeted by Alzheimer’s Association staff and information about Memory Walk. We reached hundreds of people who stopped in for coffee and breakfast. Our sign teams in front of each store reported numerous honks from passing drivers.

Big thanks go out to Tim Hortons and their individual store owner-operators — Steve Hughes in North Syracuse, Frank Crasalli in Syracuse, Eric Riihinen on Thompson Road and Tiffany Riihinen in East Syracuse. We also owe thank yous to our friends at AT&T Wireless for donating the use of 3G Internet cards for online registration.

And, as always, we owe a debt of gratitude to Skip and Heather at MOViN 100.3/96.5 for providing updates to their listeners and sending callers to our website for more information.

Memory Walk is the Alzheimer’s Association’s national event aimed at uniting communities in the fight against Alzheimer’s. Each year, thousands of people around the United States raise millions of dollars and walk in support of the Alzheimer’s Association’s mission.

In advance of this fall’s walks in Central New York, the Chapter will hold kickoff parties to ring in the season. Kickoff parties are fun and educational, welcoming walkers to learn more about Memory Walk and the Alzheimer’s Association’s work and showing walkers how to make the most of their efforts, either as a team or individual walkers. Alzheimer’s Association staff and volunteers are on hand to answer questions and help participants reach their goals.

The first kickoff event took place on June 13 in Watertown. Upcoming events include:

Mohawk Valley: June 24, 5-7 p.m. at Brookdale Clare Bridge of Clinton.
Greater Syracuse: July 15, 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Chapter’s office in Syracuse.
St. Lawrence: July 15, 4-6 p.m. in Canton Park.

Register for Memory Walk or download our online tools at alzcny.org/mw.

A group of volunteers got their hands dirty this past weekend by assisting the chapter in its spring cleanup projects. Our volunteer teams cleared ivy, cleaned gutters, painted and helped with cleaning up our offices. This is the second consecutive year of our summer cleanup day. Volunteers were treated with pizza for lunch and the knowledge that they gave back to the chapter. Check our photo gallery for more!

Cleanup Day 2009

Longtime friends of the chapter Rob and Lynn Angelicola announced that their business, roi (the former Roberts Office Interiors), has named the Alzheimer’s Association, Central New York Chapter their charity of choice. The announcement came at the grand opening of roi’s new Syracuse showroom on February 5. The office is located on the first floor of the V.I.P Structures building in Downtown Syracuse.

Rob Angelicola, a former CNY Chapter board member, made a gift of $1,000 that day and said roi would be working together with the chapter in the coming years to further its cause and mission. Their donation will be used to purchase new items for the chapter’s lending library in Syracuse and to create such a library at the newly opened Mohawk Valley Regional Office in Utica.

roi is based at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome, N.Y. The Angelicolas are past volunteer of the year honorees and honorary chairs of the 2002 and 2003 Treasured Memories Telethon in Utica. Pictured with Lynne and Rob is Syracuse Mayor Matthew J. Driscoll, who presented a city proclamation to the company.