Xavier students and faculty participate in charity walk for Alzheimer’s

For the seventh year in a row, Xavier students and faculty participated in the local Alzheimer’s Association Walk to End
Alzheimer’s earlier this month and donated more than $2500.
The Xavier University Psychology Department Forget- Me-Nots, consisting of thirty students and faculty, participated in the 5k walk on Oct. 6 at Sawyer Point. The team’s original donation goal was $2,250. However, the team raised a total of $2,895 for the local Alzheimer’s Association at the annual event. The team were listed on the
walk’s honor roll of donations Last year, Xavier was acknowledged for being the school or university team to raise the most money. The team is hoping to head the school/university teams in donation amount again this year.
Both organizers from the psychology department, Renee’
Zucchero, PhD and John Barrett, PhD, both professors and psychologists with a focus on older adults (geropsychology), are excited every year to participate in this event for service to the local community. From his own familial experience with dementia, Dr. Barrett is very dedicated to educating others about dementia and initiated
the walk at Xavier in 2006. To prepare for this year’s
event Dr. Zucchero did a presentation for Psi Chi and the
Psychology club on campus last month. She focused on the importance of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia awareness. The disease is becoming more common and nowadays most people know at least one
person that is affected by it. According to Zucchero, as
the population ages, the number of people experiencing forms of dementia should increase. The disease has such an impact on society because it affects both the person with dementia and the family providing for them. “Due to large increase in the older adult population, we need more professionals that are competent and capable of working
with older adults,” said Dr. Zucchero.