Some Jacksonville businesses will be helping paint the town purple this weekend to raise awareness for the Illinois Alzheimer’s Association.
Quincy, Jacksonville, and Macomb businesses will be going purple and distributing information about the Alzheimer’s Association free services that support individuals dealing with all types of Dementia and the upcoming walk to end Alzheimer’s coming up this fall.
Todd Lamison, Senior Development Director for the Illinois Alzheimer’s Association says that the national association chose purple for two specific reasons: “Purple is our official color. I looked it up because I wanted to know why is it purple. It comes down to red is a bold color that says that we need that boldness to go out and change the world like we are trying to do, and blue is a color of consistency and strength. We need to go ahead and stay with this because it is not going to change overnight. It’s something that we have to work hard at.”
Lamison says that the Paint the Town purple event is something new for the Illinois chapter this year: “It’s something that we brought from other areas that we are trying to kick off. It’s all about awareness. Different businesses can get involved by signing up and then what we do is we ask them to paint their establishment purple, which could mean employees wear purple that day or they put up some signs that are purple, purple lights, whatever they can do. We give them some postcards to hand out that talk about our free services so those people in Jacksonville who attend that business know exactly where to go and what to do if they have a family member, loved one, or neighbor who is some problems or have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia so they have got the resources they can use. The other side of our postcard is all about our Walk to End Alzheimer’s. That way they know how to sign up or get involved with that and show up.”
Pizza Records on East Central Park Plaza will be participating on Sunday and will also has some fundraising events to help raise money for the walk this fall. Edward Jones Investments on South Central Park Plaza will also be participating this weekend. Stop in and pick up a card and make purchases to help donate. Check with both businesses on how you can participate in their individual event.
For more information visit alz.org or call 217-641-0141.