The Longest Day

I have some exciting news to share with you! To begin, on June 21st a small, yet powerfully motivated group of volunteer community leaders focused on dementia and Alzheimer's awareness, had a successful event called The Longest Day. The Longest Day is a team event held annually by the Alzheimer's Association on the summer solstice which is the longest day of the year. Through the duration of the sunrise to sunset event it symbolizes the challenging journey of those living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementia's as well as their caregivers. The group decided that for their event they would have a day of yoga. And can you believe it ended up falling on the same day as International Day of Yoga! A perfect fit.
15.7 million family and friends provide care to people with Alzheimer's and other dementia's in the United States alone. You may not know this, but Alzheimer's Disease is the 6th leading cause of death in the U.S. and the only one in the top 10 that has no way to prevent, slow down or stop it. I am sure we all understand why awareness and support are so important for this cause. Unfortunately, many of us know that dementia does not care about your gender, race or political views (whether blue or red). I find it very interesting that the Alzheimer's color for awareness is purple. As a constituent, I believe part of my job is to make sure the leaders within our State and Nation know that, just like the disease, it doesn't matter which side of the fence they are on. This is a national crisis that we all need to come together to end.

Now to OUR big news—the group came to the campus with an amazing opportunity to take awareness to another level. They had a vision that, not only on June 21st should we honor those caregivers but for a month thereafter. Their thought was to turn our State Capitol purple for the cause! Beatitudes Campus graciously accepted this amazing partnership, and since June 21st until July 20th our State Capitol is lit a beautiful deep purple. I am proud to know that, I work for an organization that not only provides great care and awareness within our own walls, but also cares a great deal about the community and state we reside in. Over the next few weeks, we are planning some great ways to let the rest of our state know of this feat we have accomplished and why. We hope that you can help us in sharing our news.

It's a proud day to be a part of this campus!

Author Info: Beatitudes Campus

At the foundation of Beatitudes Campus is the vision of church of the Beatitudes pastors and congregation members to create a better alternative for older adults than the nursing homes of the early 1960s. The type of community they imagined was the first of its kind in Arizona. Beatitudes Campus is proud to continue the legacy of our founders, by being a leader in the field of aging services for over 50 years.