Hikers hit the trails for Alzheimer’s support

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (News10) – When John Marcantonio lost his mother, Mary, in 2016, it wasn’t sudden. It was the conclusion of a extended fight with Alzheimer’s Condition – a battle where by matters only grew a lot more demanding as months turned into years.

“It’s devastating to view a cherished a person lose all their abilities,” Marcantonio recalled on Thursday. “The worst working day of my daily life was when I realized my mother no for a longer time knew who I was.”

These days, Marcantonio is spearheading a marketing campaign that started with him and his good friends following his mother’s passing. Commencing the subsequent summer months, he and some companions began an annual tradition, climbing mountains in the Adirondack High Peaks from sunlight-up to sundown to raise income for the Northeastern New York chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. A member of the association’s board, Marcantonio has developed his summer months solstice tradition from increasing $5,000 every year to hitting $18,000 in 2021.

For a next year, Marcantonio is inviting locals all across northeastern New York to sign up to sign up for the Paint the Peaks Purple marketing campaign, and strike the trails on June 21 – or at any time in June. You really don’t have to be a 46er – an individual who has climbed all of the Adirondack Superior Peaks – in get to assistance out. The marketing campaign invites trailblazers of all ages and skills to hike whatever they can, where ever they can, and share the donation connection with their loved ones and pals.

This year, the effort aims to raise $30,000. Marcantonio wears a pin on his lapel bearing the brand of the Alzheimer’s Association, and claims that the signifier has sparked its share of conversations that show to him how widespread the effect of Alzheimer’s and dementia can be.

“When I tell him that this is the Alzheimer’s Association symbol, everybody’s got a tale. Everyone knows another person that has professional the tragedy of diagnosis, and what that journey appears to be like like.”

The Alzheimer’s Affiliation retains a massive quantity of fundraisers across its regional organizations, which go to analysis and sources alike. Those means were types that Marcantonio turned to when he understood that he couldn’t treatment for his mom on your own, and necessary an individual to aid him obtain the place to get her the treatment she needed.

The hiking notion was precisely hatched as a way to try to remember Marcantonio’s mom. As a youngster, Mary Marcantonio would hike with her possess father up Prospect Mountain just about every Columbus Working day.

Climbing wasn’t something that Mary and John shared in the very same way, but Marcantonio’s mom was a walker until finally the finish – a little something that her son nonetheless remembers with a smile. Even though living at Cronin Superior-Increase Flats in Glens Falls, Mary became some thing of a neighborhood legend – one particular who could tear by a pair of sneakers in three months.

“She experienced a pretty distinct gait – she had scoliosis,” John recalled. “She would hike all working day. I was really blessed that all of the regional businesses entrepreneurs, restaurants and stores realized me, and realized my mother. They would offer her to come in, have a consume of drinking water, and they truly helped me to retain her in independant residing for as extended as I could.”

On June 21, Marcantonio has a lot of climbing forward of him. He and some companions – like the buddies who have been along from the begin – will hike Mt. Colden, the 11th-highest mountain in the Adirondacks, at a overall elevation of 4,714 ft. On Wednesday, he kicked the period off with a excursion to the Moreau Overlook path.

All those hunting to get a grasp on the ideal hike for them have loads of choices. Marcantonio indicates the Lake George 12, the Lake Placid 9, the Adirondack 29 and the Adirondack Hearth Tower Trails – just as a couple of destinations to get started. Those people who sign-up with the marketing campaign on the web will be able to post information and facts on who is hiking with them and in which they’re likely, and post pictures of the journey.

When the dollars raised goes in direction of sources – including a 24/7 cell phone help line for these who need to have a person to change to in caring for a cherished one – it also goes to study into curing the condition. It is that investigate that issues most to Marcantonio. For him, the hike on “the longest day” is about the following era to occur.

“I have a son. He’s 11 a long time outdated. Ideally by the time he’s 65 or more mature, this sickness doesn’t exist any more.”