I firmly believe that all that is needed to defeat Alzheimer's disease is a dedicated, team effort. Read this piece from the New York Times website:

"Some 90 million viewers tuning into Super Bowl XLI were served up commercials featuring an accidental kiss, a lonely dog and a questionable hairstyle by advertisers looking to cash in on the year's biggest TV event. Aired on CBS, the Indianapolis Colt's 29-17 win over the Chicago Bears was viewed by what is likely to be the biggest U.S. television audience of the year. About 20 marketers paid up to $2.6 million for a 30-second commercial spot during the game."

The Super Bowl is now over, climaxing the end of the football season. Basketball will soon fade away, as well, with the coming of "March Madness". Then the fury and flurry of excitement will shift to baseball.

How we Americans love our sports. The money we spend to support our teams and follow our heroes is enormous. We enjoy winning so much. But even though our team may lose, we still support them " the Bills, Bears, Cats, Beavers, Ducks, Blazers, and so on. Everyone loves and supports the games, the home team, college team, and, well, all of the teams.

I wish there were an end to the "Alzheimer's Season."Wouldn't it be great if our country rallied behind all of the people with dementia and cheered us on to a winning season? I wish we supported our Alzheimer's teams as much as we supported our basketball, football and baseball teams. If our country supported these teams better, we would have this Alzheimer's adversary "whipped". Just think, if everyone that watched the Super Bowl sent just "one dollar,"to Alzheimer's Research. Wow! What a difference that could make. If the all of the sports fans sent just fifty cents, we could have this thing defeated " in no time. We could "win"if only half of our population demanded that we make curing Alzheimer's disease a national goal.

What will it take to get this country " our home team " to rally round and defeat Alzheimer's disease? Please put just $1 (and maybe a copy of this article) into an envelope and send it to:

Alzheimer's Research
Alzheimer's Association
225 North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, IL 60601-7633

If 1,000 people do this, it makes $1,000. If more of us do, well, you do the math, but every little bit helps.

Chuck Jackson

Chuck Jackson was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2004 at age 50. He is a working Member of the National Alzheimer's Association's Early Stage Advisory Group, a Working Board Member of the Alzheimer's Network of Oregon, an active member of the Oregon Cascades Alzheimer's Association speakers Bureau and an out spoken member of DASNInternational and Dementia USA.