Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary raises funds for Alzheimer’s research

Lewes-Rehoboth Rotary Club held its second annual All You Can Eat Hard Shell Crabs and Wings event June 4 at The Surfing Crab. All seats were sold out, and the net proceeds were used to benefit clinical trials on finding a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's is not only an old people’s disease. The protein gene that causes the disease can lie dormant for 20 to 30 years or more before activating. Of the six major causes of death, Alzheimer's is the only one that cannot be prevented or cured. In the United States, 5.4 million people have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

In Delaware, the incidence of the disease is equally daunting. In 2010, it was estimated that 14,000 Delawareans aged 65 and older were living with Alzheimer's. This number does not include the many thousands more with younger-onset Alzheimer's disease or those with related dementias. According to the Alzheimer's Association Delaware Valley Chapter, approximately 26,000 Delawareans are living with Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder. The number of people with Alzheimer's disease in Delaware has grown. Like the rest of the country, it is in the midst of an unprecedented growth in the older population. At age 60, only 1 percent of the population has Alzheimer's, but at age 85, 40 percent have the disease.

Lewes-Rehoboth Rotarian Dave Keller, whose mother died of Alzheimer's, witnessed firsthand how devastating personally and financially this dreaded disease can be to victims of Alzheimer's and their families. Keller and fellow Rotarians developed a program of awareness and fundraising by coming up with a slogan, Coins For A Cure...Remembering For Those Who Can't. This slogan was affixed to a counter-sized collection box, and collection boxes were placed at select retail locations in Lewes.

With funds collected from the crab feast and donations gathered from the collection boxes, it is expected that $10,000 will be raised to help fund clinical research trials led by noted researcher Dr. James Ellison. He heads the Swank Foundation Memory Care and Geriatrics at Christiana Care Health System. Club members are proud that not one dime goes to administration, only to research.

There are 41 Rotary Clubs in Sussex, Kent and New Castle counties. It is their wish to expand these worthwhile programs to raise $100,000 annually for clinical research. In 1985, Rotary International gave its first check of $500 to find a cure for polio. Since that time, Rotary International has given $1.3 billion to fund polio research, and the disease has been virtually eradicated in every country in the world except Pakistan and Afghanistan, where last year five cases were reported. The hope is to do for Alzheimer's what was done for polio eradication.