BROWN ALZHEIMER's ACTIVISTS
A BIT ABOUT US
Brown Alzheimer's Activists
Brown Alzheimer's Activists is a Brown University organization dedicated to helping those with dementia through raising awareness about and fundraising dementia care and research. There are 3 ways to be involved in this club, none of which are mandatory: club meetings, volunteering at Wingate, and dementia-related events!
VOLUNTEERING VIRTUALLY
At least every other week, we normally go to Wingate Residences on the East Side in Providence and work with the dementia residents. This generally entails helping them with puzzles, crosswords, and other games! No prior experience or training is necessary; that being said, directly before each trip, we always give a brief overview of what you should and should not do. The trips would take place on Saturday afternoons and, including travel, take no more than 1.5 hours total.
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not be traveling to any assisted living homes. However, over the school year, we have planned to send care packages to various RI living homes with encouraging cards, letters, and activity sheets. We also plan on sending music videos and hosting virtual Zoom meetings for multiple residences around Providence (including Wingate).
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What Will Care Packages Look Like?
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We will send out each package with a cover letter, print-outs of material prepared by club members, and hand-made material, personalizing each package based on facility preferences.
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Materials include: cards, letters, jokes, activity sheets with memory-stimulating activities, throwbacks in history...and more! (your ideas included!)
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Each of these items can be personalized to residents (in some cases) or on general themes (e.g. sports, animals, etc.). For certain months, we plan to make our packages holiday-themed (e.g. Halloween for October).
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How can I participate?
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You can help to create material for the care packages! All you have to do is fill out the form below, indicating what type of materials you may want to create for that month’s package. We will then reach out to you with more information.
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Google Form (currently open for October care packages): https://forms.gle/cJkQvggHKqgGmhpi9
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There are several ways you can contribute:
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Online Material:
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Type a personalized letter online → Linda will print
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Create an activity/worksheet → Linda will print
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Create a list of jokes → others can include this in cards/letters they are making
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Hand-made Material:
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Make a handmade card → mail to Linda or scan
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Make an art piece or activity → mail to Linda or scan
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Live Music Performances
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We are pairing up with 2 other clubs from Brown, Tunes for Change and Healing Through Harmony, on a livestream musical performance event on Saturday, Oct. 24th, 2-4pm EDT (tentative timing) with Wingate through Zoom. We are looking for volunteers to help monitor zoom during the performance (e.g., unmuting people, managing the chat) and recorded musical performance (unfortunately we're not able to offer slots in the live performance this time)!
If you are interested in helping us moderate the zoom call, please sign up through this google form by Monday, Oct.19th:
https://forms.gle/5cpEfDHKZbkCKJuJ9
If you are interested in providing us with recorded performances to be used in a larger library for the facilities to play whenever they want, please email Anwen Lin (anwen_lin@brown.edu) and cc our email!
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Tentative Schedule for October:
Oct.13: Indicate interest in creating material using this the form above
Oct. 15: We get back to you on details of your contribution
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Oct. 24: Livestream Musical Performance from 2-4 p.m.
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**THANK YOU for helping out!! Email alzactivists@brown.edu with any further questions, or click "Get Involved" below.
DEMENTIA-RELATED EVENTS
Each year, we (a) bring speakers, such as neurologists, to campus, (b) hold fundraisers for Alzheimer's research and care, such as bake sales and benefit concerts, and (c) participate in local RI events, such as the Walk to End Alzheimer's (September) and the Brain Fair (March). Even if you do not attend club meetings, you are more than welcome to be involved in putting together these events.
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all of our events will be virtual and remote. However, we will still be hosting multiple events, such as the Walk to End Alzheimer's, and various panel events. For specific events or questions, please visit the Events page or contact us below.
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Panel Event
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The panel (Alzheimer's Disease: Frontiers in Biomed and Healthcare Research) will be held on Thursday Oct. 22nd, from 7:30pm-8:30pm EDT. Our panelists are Dr. Jonathan Drake, Dr. Laura Korthauer, Dr. Jill Harrison, and Dr. Stephen Salloway - dementia experts here at Brown University. Their research on Alzheimer's disease spans a spectrum of disciplines, including biomarkers for preclinical dementia, person-centered care, drug development and more!
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The first half of the panel will be allocated to introductions of the panelists and their current research focus. In the second half, we will be asking the panelists several questions, and will then open up the floor to audience members, with the opportunity for live Q&A!
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If you are interested in attending the event, we ask that you RSVP through this form:
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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScSbQr4y_lwdBzD8FA70aJ3D4oOViOW0gpOlDbGTil6njYWdw/viewform
If you have specific questions that you would like the panelists to address, please include those in the same form above! We will be selecting 1-2 questions from the responses to ask the panelists before live Q&A. Also, the zoom link to the event will be sent out closer to time, and will also be posted on our social media and website!
For more details on the panelists, please follow us on our social media, where we will be posting their bios in the upcoming days. Please also take a look at the flyer attached.
