Purple. The color of royalty, sacred ceremonies, and the color most often associated with The Alzheimer’s Association. Purple is the color of the pinwheel flower in The Alzheimer’s Promise Garden that represents lost loved ones. The yellow flower is for caregivers; the blue for someone living with ALZ or other Dementia; the orange for supporters of the vision of a world without ALZ. Put together, the flowers create a visual landscape of hope, support and caring.
The week of May 9 – 11 The 5 O’Clock Phlock Parrot Head Club, in partnership with The Rotary Club of Lake Conroe, will set out a display of more than 1000 Promise Garden Flowers in Memory Park in Montgomery for our first Alzheimer’s and Dementia Awareness Week. Can you just imagine the sight of this kaleidoscope of color spinning in the breeze?
The highlight of the week will be Saturday, May 9th when we will host our Alzheimer’s and Dementia Awareness Day in the park from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Our tents will be stationed near the Shane Carter Rose Garden. Members of our championship 5OCP Walk To End Alzheimer’s Team will be there with information about brain health, dementia awareness, and the support available for families and caregivers through the Alzheimer’s Association and their partner organizations. RCLC will provide refreshments and information about Memory Park. We’ll have giveaways and door prizes. There will be music and a yard game or two. Kids can feed the Koi, visit the Rainbow Bridge Garden, The Linda Ricketts Literacy Garden and the Story Book Walk. While there, visit the library too. The Friends of The Charles B Stewart Library Spring Book Sale and Silent Auction will be going on and the view of Memory Park from the library windows just cannot be beat.
We’re inviting the community to join us for a joyous day to honor those we’ve lost to The Long Goodbye and help those still in the fight. As we always do, we’ve planned some serious fun to bring awareness to a serious disease.
Combining the efforts of 5OCP and RCLC is such a natural fit. Several of our members are in both groups, including most of our Board of Directors. Memory Park was my Rotary project and I chaired the Memory Park Committee from inception until I retired from active Rotary membership with RCLC (I’m still an honorary member) to become president of 5OCP. Peter Wakefield designed and built Memory Park; Catherine Fife held the first memorial service in the park (for her husband) shortly after it opened. Marie and Dave Underdown provided the initial funding for The Rainbow Bridge Garden, Christina and Bill Rathbun have multiple gardens there, and my husband Michael was the maintenance chair for years, building bridges and oh so much more. So, an Alzheimer’s joint project in the park has long made sense to us. Both Rotary International and Parrot Heads in Paradise are National Walk To End ALZ Team organizations and our fundraising has provided millions of dollars of funding for research and care.
Our purple passion is real, but our goal is a field of white. White is the flower color designated to honor the first survivor of Alzheimer’s. We are cautiously confident that we’ll add the white flower to the Promise Garden within our lifetime. Together, we can do this. We hope to see you and your family in Memory Park this week!
Kris is President of The 5 O’Clock Phlock Parrot Head Club, the PHC of the Lake Conroe/Woodlands area. Email KrisCommService@gmail.com or text 713 825-0141. Follow the club on Facebook at www.facebook.com/5OClockPhlock. For more info, visit the website www.5oclockphlock.com.