We Keep on Rolling Along

It has been much too long since I updated the Beads for Memories site. Much has happened in the months since the Cabin Fever Reliever.

The first major event after our last post was our family being named as the 2014 Walk For Mamories Honouree family! We were quite surprised and very flattered that Alysha would be the face of the 2014 walk.

Alysha was enthusiastic about her new responsibilities, appearing in e-mail and advertising for the Society, and even doing a live radio show on 1290 CJBK. You can hear the entire interview, from the 'Ask The Experts' segment in their archive.


And what a day it was.

Our family was also able to give a thank you to all the supporters and volunteers at the society, and lead the walk out and along the path through Springbank Park.

You can see here that Alysha managed to raise the third highest amount of individual donations, and the $153,000 raised was a London record. We were shocked by the amount of different donors to Alysha's walk, and know that the Society will put the funds raised to good use.

Seeing Springbank Gardens full of supporters is a bittersweet thing. For one, we know there are lots of people in the community willing to give their time and effort to helping families cope with this disease. Of course, knowing that Alzheimers and many other kinds of dementia have no cure, a full park means there are a lot of people who need help, and there will be more in the coming years.

It is our hope that, in our own way, a young person like Alysha can help draw attention to the fact that Alzheimer's is not a disease that affects only those over a certain age.

Alysha has had more going on this summer, and I will be posting (soon I hope) about a couple of other projects to keep Beads For Memories rolling along.

Cabin Fever Reliever 2014

The 2014 Cabin Fever Reliever has come and gone, and it was another very successful night for Beads for Memories.

 With a table crammed full of all new beaded and woven bracelets, earrings, matching earring and necklace sets, Alysha and Julie were ready for anybody. There were even bookmarks and zipper pulls made for those looking for something different.

Sales were steady all evening, and the total was $257 raised for the whole night. That's the best single day of sales in Beads for Memories history!

Walk For Memories 2013

Another year has gone by quickly, it seems. The month of May brings one of the most important dates on the Alzheimer's Society calendar, the 5km Walk For Memories. Unlike the warm day that mother nature provided in 2012, the weather was positively chilly for the Saturday morning walk in 2013.
Alysha and Julie were still there early to set up shop, however.

Cold weather garb.

 Alysha was happy to have customers to keep her moving, and new woven pattern bracelets at $4 each to keep people coming back for something different. Of course, Joan, one of Beads for Memories first and best customers, stopped by for a visit and a purchase.

We're always happy to see the lady in purple, and she's always got something purple to pick out when she stops by.
Of course, the day is about walking in honour of those who suffer with Alzheimers and dementia, and Alysha and I marched the 5km with pride. We stopped 1/3 of the way through for a picture at the memory wall.

Alysha's marching warmed her up perfectly, and she was proud to have raised $533 on the day of the walk, between pledges and bracelet sales.
Thanks to all who came by and said hi, and our gratitude goes out to the family and friends who pledged money for the walk as well.

This brings Alysha's total raised to over $3000 dollars in the last 3 years, and we are all very happy that she's been able to have a very positive experience from what was once a difficult situation. See you at the next Alzheimer's event!

Walk for Memories 2012

This post is a bit behind schedule, but better late than never! Alysha spent her first year collecting pledges for the Alzheimer Walk For Memories, and she completed the walk on May 12th.

Alysha, Julie and I were there to walk, and to sell bracelets.

The walk was lovely, and though the day was a grey one, there was lots of colour as the London Police piped us through the first turn.

Here, Alysha is joined by a surprise companion. Natasia is a family friend who managed to walk almost all of the route, even with much shorter legs . Maybe she can be convinced to collect pledges next year!













At the halfway point, we pause and take a breath at the Memory Wall.

Alysha is very stoked up by her completion of the walk, she knows her $520 in pledges will be a big help. Natasia is a bit less impressed.

During the hour long walk, mom held down things at the bracelet table, and we raised another $145 for the Society.

Thanks to all the people at the society who always make us feel welcome, and to all the friends and family who donated. The employees at Ramkey Communications were responsible for pledging almost half of Alysha's total for the walk, which was truly unexpected.

Hope to see you all there next year! (If not before.)

A little bit more famous.

As I mentioned in my last post, Alysha was given the opportunity to appear on London's Rogers Daytime TV program for an interview!


Leslie Mitchell from the Alzheimer Society was nice enough to bring her along, and if you missed it, you can see her first ever television appearance by clicking right here.


We are very proud of Alysha for taking this opportunity to get the word out about Alzheimer's and the Walk for Memories. The walk itself was completed Saturday, May 12, but if her story has interested you, pledges can be made up until May 31st at walkformemories.ca. To pledge for Alysha, you can use this link directly.


If your interested in learning more about Alysha and her family's efforts to raise funds for Alzheimer's care and research, might I suggest my original post.

Totals and Goals

Beads For Memories is about making a real difference for those who have Alzheimer's. Alysha knows that every bracelet made and sold is important. She's still nine years old, and fifty cents is more than loose change to her, it represents real time and effort to earn it. Really, every contribution is appreciated, by all involved.

There is a great motivating factor in setting goals, however, so there are totals to be reached as things progress. Some have already been achieved, and some are still out there on the horizon. Without further ado, let's do this by the numbers!

February of 2011: Alysha starts selling bracelets for 25 cents each. Sales surprise everyone involved, and Alysha sets her goal to raise $200 by the end of the month. On March 1st, she finishes selling, and brings $212.50 to the Alzheimer Society of London and Middlesex.

Spring/Summer 2011: Alysha aims to get her own message on a chair at the Alzheimer Society's conference room. Her target is the $250 dollar donation required to do so.

Our supporters at local businesses help out by having a donation/sales box at their front counter.  Jewellery Werx, Attain Total Health, Krafty Kennedy's, and Advantage Automotive are all participants in this effort.

Alysha and her parents are also given space at the third party fundraiser table at the May 5th Walk for Memories, where many of the society's regular volunteers and contributors get to meet Alysha fro the first time.

The Alzheimer's Society is part of the Doors Open London Event, Alysha is stationed at her own table, and collects $110 in contributions over 2 days!

By the end of the summer, Beads For Memories has raised and additional $250 and the plaque and message go on the chair in October 2011.

February 2012: With a large supply of bracelets, Alysha and her mother attend the Alzheimer's Cabin Fever Reliever dinner and auction. Proceeds from this one night total $230.00

Alysha also sells bracelets at White Oaks School every school recess and lunch. As of March 1st  White Oaks staff and students have donated another $305.00. Since the school reached the $250.00 mark, a message will be added to a chair in the Alzheimer Society's conference room on White Oaks behalf.

March 1st 2012: Individuals and companies who donate over $1000 in a calendar year are recognised by the Alzheimer's Society by having their name placed on the wall at the offices on Windermere Road. Alysha has been seeking this target since back at the beginning of March, 2011. At the time, the goal was over $750 away. We are proud to announce that the sale of bracelets will result in a total for the year of over $1000 dollars!

Alysha celebrated her first year of donations with the staff at the society, give a click to see the cake and the BIG cheque.

The Society ran a day of workshops in April, and we were thankful that Pam and Joan brought Alysha's bracelets to the Navigating the Road Ahead event. These two high-pressure sales ladies brought back $175.00 in bracelet sales from the one day event. We thank them for their time and effort when Alysha could not be there.

On May 12 2012, Alysha participated in the Walk For Memories for the first time. Beads for Memories had a table with our wares, and the sales of handmade bracelets came to $145.60 this year! We hope all of you who bought a bracelet are wearing it with pride.

Alysha also collected pledges for the 5 kilometre walk, and brought in another $520.00 for her efforts. Thanks to friends, family, and the employees of Ramkey Communications for your generosity.

As of May 12, 2012 , the total monies raised by the sales of Beads For Memories is:

$1712.53 

The total for all the contributions to the Alzheimer Society as a result of Alysha and her customer's and pledges efforts is now.

$2232.53

Once again, every donation is appreciated, and if you are among those who have seen us around town and helped out, we would like to thank you again.

As always, if you'd like more information on the project you can contact awlovespets@rogers.com. if you would like to read about Alysha's inspiration for the work that she does, you can read my first post.

A Little Bit Famous

Life in the land of Beads for Memories continues to surprise and take unexpected turns. It seems that the daily London paper called Metro was interested in doing a column about the Walk For Memories. Our friends at the Alzheimer Society of London-Middlesex told their reporter about Alysha and what she had been up to over the past year with her bracelets. This resulted in an interview, and a feature in the newspaper. We were all very excited, you can read the story by clicking right here.

We hope you are inspired by Alysha's story as much as we are. She will be doing the walk just ten days from now, and we are still looking for donations to reach her goal of $500.00 for the walk. Alysha's mother, Julie, will also have bracelets for sale before and during the walk on a table near the registration area.

The Alzheimer Society has a very easy online donation system, so you can pledge your support directly with a few clicks of the mouse. If you'd like to know more about how the walk helps Alzheimer's patients and their families, you can got to walkformemories.ca, if you would like to pledge funds for Alysha's walk, you can go to her personal page and donate there.

We appreciate any amount you can give, Alzheimer's is a disease that takes tremendous resources to support sufferers and their families, and we want to help the society ease that burden as much as possible.

As always, if you've come to this site only lately, you can read about the start of Beads for Memories at my first post.

Alysha may be making an appearance on Rogers Television in London next week, so come back to the blog this weekend and I will hopefully have details about the exact time and channel.